How the Bee Gees plan to stay alive in the era of digital music

FAN Editor

Dave Santaniello, senior vice president of music rights and partnerships for United Entertainment Group, rejected the suggestion that the Bee Gees catalog is in any danger of fading away.

He said that the 2016 Capitol deal, which he guessed could have been worth “north of $30 million,” was only made because the label believes that there’s considerable life left in the catalog.

“The objective opinion says that if it wasn’t making money, this deal would not have happened,” he said.

It’s a start, but can the recently knighted Barry Gibb do anything to put the group on more people’s radars?

“They need to find an ad agency and give them free rights to use their music,” said Rob Miller, an online marketing consultant at ProfitKong.com.

“Look at what Cadbury did for Phil Collins,” he said, referring to a 2007 commercial that featured a gorilla playing drums to the tune of Collins’ 1981 song “In the Air Tonight.” The popularity of the ad put the decades-old song back on the U.K. charts.

Business strategist Rafe Gomez, co-owner of VC Inc. Marketing, said that Gibb could follow the path laid out by Frank Sinatra. His 1993 Duets album featured collaborations between the late crooner and some of the era’s top contemporary artists, such as Luther Vandross and Kenny G.

“Barry’s spin on this approach can include duets… with such mainstream artists as Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Taylor Swift,” he said.

Regardless of whatever state the group’s catalog is in now, it won’t take much to remind people why they were so popular in the first place, said Mara Schwartz Kuge, president and founder of Superior Music Publishing in Los Angeles.

“The Bee Gees are such a beloved band that they never really went out of the public’s consciousness,” Schwatz said.

“The catalog could use a couple of fresh impressions on listeners, but it’s not like people have forgotten about their songs,” she added. “It will just take one or two successful marketing efforts to get them top-of-mind for people again.”

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