SONGWRIGHTS PUBLISHERS began in 1976 as a music publishing company which collected together the different music copyright interests owned by Patrick Lee-Thorp.
This drew in the works controlled by Musicwrights Publishers, then the music publisher of songs by the composer, David Kramer and Express Music, then the publisher of Chris Schilder, and other writers. These businesses were based in Cape Town, South Africa.
With the opening of an office in Hamburg in 1996 an association with the German music publishers Newmusic Publishing gave Songwrights a European base.
From the outset Songwrights acquired rights on a worldwide basis but serviced the interests of in-house composers related to the record labels Mountain Records, Sea Records and several other independent producers. Composers represented included, Basil Coetzee, Jonathan Butler, Tony Schilder, Dizu Plaatjies, Robin Auld, Edi Niederlander and many others.
In 2008 the firm acquired the publishing catalogue of Newmusic Publishing, which included the former catalogue of Ethnic World Music Musikverlag taking in composers writing for the EDM dance label and different jazz composer/artists recording in Germany. In 2009 the firm began to seek broader sub-publishing alliances.
Songwrights is a member of SAMRO, CAPASSO and SACEM and is still represented in South Africa but is now run from Hamburg, Germany. |
