Universal Music Enterprises (UME) and Disc Marketing, Inc. have entered into a multi-year agreement to create compelling music “premiums” for many of the world’s major consumer brands, it was announced today by Bruce Resnikoff, President, Universal Music Enterprises.
Under this agreement, UME, through its Special Markets division, will become the principal supplier of music content for music premiums developed by Disc Marketing for its wide range of corporate clients. UME will also provide manufacturing services for Disc Marketing. The agreement additionally calls for Disc Marketing to become the exclusive supplier of enhanced content for UME’s premium CD music packages.
Utilizing the vast Universal catalog and Disc Marketing’s technology, Universal Music Special Markets and Disc Marketing will create E-CDs that include exclusive video and animated content, music tracks, audio branding messages, television commercials, product information, links to Web sites where products are promoted and/or sold, smart tracking technology for database building and mining, and more. Featuring fast, high-quality sound and video downloads, the E-CD can interact with a Web site or stand alone in complementing an overall marketing campaign with print, TV, radio and online elements. The discs can be played on any audio CD player and the multimedia content can be played on a CD-ROM or DVD drive of most personal computers.
Universal Music Special Markets is responsible for maximizing catalog repertoire opportunities through non-traditional, alternative and ancillary channels, as well as audio licensing, premium/custom sales and budget releases. Past and recent clients include Coca-Cola, Wrangler, Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, Nissan, Ford, Chevrolet, Gallo, Mountain Dew, Budweiser, NutriSoy, and 7-UP.
Disc Marketing, based in Pasadena, CA, creates alternative, targeted marketing solutions utilizing music and new media specifically designed to augment and extend its clients’ brands. The company’s diverse client list includes Target, NASA, Toyota, United Airlines, General Mills, Coca-Cola, Princess Cruises, Kellogg’s, Johnson & Johnson, Sears and Spiegel. Disc Marketing also offers audio programming (among those clients are United Airlines, Air Force One and Air Force Two).
Said Bruce Resnikoff, President, UME: “As two leading suppliers of music premiums, UME and Disc Marketing can offer clients the most exciting and diverse music packages available. The assets of both companies complement each other and allow us to combine UME’s impressive repertoire and production capabilities with Disc Marketing’s cutting edge technology and marketing acumen. This new alliance will ensure that we can offer customers a new level of service in meeting their marketing needs.”
Said Tena Clark, CEO, who founded Disc Marketing in 1997: “With this agreement, each of us will be able to offer more exciting and compelling products to our clients. They are clamoring for the great music UME can provide and for more of the enhanced features Disc Marketing can offer. Coming together was a natural. How many projects we do over the length of the deal is unlimited – and so too is the future for this kind of brand marketing with music.”
Located in the original firehouse in the historic district of Pasadena, California, Disc Marketing, Inc. is parent to six operating divisions, all built on the belief in the power of music: Disc Marketing Corporate Marketing Programs, DMI Audio Programming, Firehouse Recording Studios, 5 Alarm Music, DM Music Libraries and DM Publishing Group.
UME represents the largest catalog in the U.S. of recorded music with recordings from the world’s greatest artists from A&M, Geffen, MCA, Universal, Interscope, Mercury, Island, Polydor, Motown, Def Jam, MCA Nashville, and more. Among the legendary artists are Abba, Aerosmith, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, James Brown, The Carpenters, Eric Clapton, Patsy Cline, John Coltrane, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, The Four Tops, Judy Garland, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, Buddy Holly, The Jackson Five, The Mamas & The Papas, Bob Marley, Bill Monroe, Van Morrison, Nirvana, The Police, Smokey Robinson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, The Supremes, The Temptations, Conway Twitty, Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, and The Who.
UME is a division of Universal Music Group, the world’s leading music company with wholly-owned record operations or licensees in 63 countries around the world. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry’s largest global music publishing operations. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and UM3 (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.