(l to r) BMG A&R director Henry Bishop, SVP of business and legal affairs for repertoire Kris Muñoz, president of repertoire and marketing Thomas Scherer, Riot Games global head of music and events Maria Egan, BMG chief of staff and SVP of publishing Marian Wolf, Riot Games senior music counsel Danny Silverman, creative and artist partnerships head Bob DeBelina, and senior manager of music supervision Jonny Altepeter. Photo Credit: Julia Calvo-Junkin
BMG has inked an expanded deal with League of Legends developer Riot Games, and under the pact, the companies are set to zero in “on signing and servicing songwriters to frontline publishing deals.”
Bertelsmann-owned BMG and Tencent-owned Riot Games formally announced their bolstered tie-up today, having initially partnered in 2020. Since then, the businesses have coordinated “on a number of successful projects” – among them the first single from virtual group Heartsteel, which debuted last month – and BMG has served as the publisher for 17-year-old Riot’s “catalog of close to 1000 custom music titles.”
On the latter front, the newly unveiled agreement encompasses an extension of Riot’s BMG publishing admin deal. Additionally, besides working to sign songwriters, as initially mentioned, the BMG SoundLab co-hosts say they’re preparing to “leverage the wide scope of creative opportunities across Riot’s products and music initiatives.”
“We are thrilled to extend this partnership with BMG,” elaborated Riot Games global head of music and events Maria Egan. “They saw the potential of the Riot ecosystem many years ago and deeply understand our culture.
“Their creative partnership and best in class global team will be a superpower for us as we take Riot’s music initiatives, across games, esports, and entertainment to the next level,” concluded the Seeker Music board member, whose company’s catalog is said to have surpassed 10 billion streams earlier in 2023.
And in remarks of his own, BMG’s president of repertoire and marketing for Los Angeles and New York, Thomas Scherer, emphasized the reach of Riot Games’ titles, including Teamfight Tactics and Valorant.
“Riot stands alone in the gaming industry,” added Scherer, “with a growing entertainment ecosystem around their world class games, powered by hundreds of millions of music-loving gamers all around the world – BMG is proud to be their chosen partner!”
In other news concerning the lucrative intersection of music and gaming, Overwatch 2 last month announced its “first-ever in-game” artist collaboration. As part of the initiative, Hybe-signed Le Sserafim released a track in the multiplayer title and performed at BlizzCon towards November’s start.
Recent months have also seen Blackpink launch a multifaceted experience in the world of Roblox, while Ed Sheeran promoted the release of his latest album with an iHeartMedia-sponsored concert in Fortnite.