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The Deals: ‘Yellowstone’ & ‘Avengers’ Composer Brian Tyler Sells Music Rights to CEG
Cutting Edge Group (CEG), which holds the music catalogues of Warner Bros. Discovery and AMC Studios, has acquired composer Brian Tyler's rights and royalty streams across his major film and TV soundtracks. The deal, announced on 15 July, is described as one of the largest ever completed for a single film and TV composer's rights, further cementing CEG's position as the leading collector of media music catalogues.
Tyler's catalogue includes scores for the Fast and the Furious franchise, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Crazy Rich Asians, Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone universe and the official Formula 1 theme, with the represented films grossing more than $21 billion (£16.4 billion) at the box office. The acquisition adds to CEG's portfolio of some 400,000 owned or managed music rights, now valued at over $1 billion (£780 million), with both sides represented by teams of lawyers and agents including Michelman Robinson, Loeb & Loeb and the Gorfaine Schwartz Agency.
In short
- CEG buys composer Brian Tyler's rights to major film and TV scores
- Catalogue includes Fast & Furious, Avengers and Yellowstone music
- One of the largest-ever single composer rights deals, CEG says
Explained simply
Brian Tyler is a film and television composer whose work has soundtracked some of the entertainment industry's biggest franchises. His scores include the Fast and Furious films, Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Crazy Rich Asians, and the Yellowstone television universe, with his film work alone accumulating over $21 billion in global box office revenue.
Composers typically retain the rights to their music, which generate ongoing income through royalties whenever their work is broadcast, streamed or performed. However, composers sometimes choose to sell these rights to specialist investment firms, trading future revenue streams for upfront cash.
Cutting Edge Group is a music catalogue investment company that specialises in acquiring the rights to established film and television scores. This acquisition of Tyler's catalogue is among the largest transactions ever completed for a single film and television composer, and reflects growing investment in media music as a valuable, revenue-generating asset.
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