Famous Music

Famous Music was the worldwide music publishing division of Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom. Its copyright holdings span several decades and includes music from such Academy Award-winning motion pictures as The Godfather and Forrest Gump. It was founded in 1928 by Paramount’s predecessor, the Famous-Lasky Corporation, to publish music from its "talking pictures."

Famous Music also provided licensing and administration services for many prominent music catalog owners such as The Clyde Otis Music Catalogs, as well as for other Viacom divisions including MTV, Nickelodeon and BET.

For a number of years, Famous Music also had a record label group division. The labels, including Dot Records, Sire Records and Paramount Records, were acquired by ABC Records in 1974. They are now owned by Universal Music Group.

In May 2007, Viacom sold Famous Music to Sony-ATV Music Publishing co owned by Sony and Michael Jackson for a reported $370m.

References

• Famous Music Videos Database Collection.