MusicBird acquires the catalogue of Midge Ure

28 March 2023 - Press release

 

Today (28th March) MusicBird is delighted to announce its acquisition of the music catalogue of iconic Scottish songwriter, recording artist and producer Midge Ure. MusicBird has acquired the writers share, master recording and neighbouring rights income on over 300 songs across Midge’s solo career and his work with Ultravox, Visage and more.  

Midge enjoyed huge success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, Rich Kids, Visage and as the lead singer of Ultravox. He produced, co-wrote and performed on several synth-pop and new wave classics such as “Fade to Grey” by Visage, the Ultravox hits “Vienna” and “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes” and his UK No 1 hit “If I Was”, taken from his top 10 album “The Gift”. 

Together with Bob Geldof, Midge co-wrote and produced the Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, which sold over 12 million copies worldwide and ranks as the second-highest selling single in UK chart history (as a charity single this was not part of the MusicBird acquisition).  

Talking about the deal, Midge Ure said: “It is a significant moment for me as an artist and songwriter to see my songs find a new home at MusicBird with people who are genuinely passionate about music. I think this team will take the songs to new audiences and I am excited to be working with them on that!” 

Paul Brown, CEO of MusicBird said: “This is an important deal for MusicBird. Midge has written some genuinely timeless hits that were ground-breaking, helping to define the 1980s new wave sound and literally paving the way for those that came after. We are hugely excited to become the custodian of these incredible songs and we are humbled that Midge has entrusted these precious pieces of art to the MusicBird team.”  

MusicBird’s current catalogue portfolio includes the publishing rights of world class songwriter J.R. Rotem (including hits by Rihanna, Jason Derulo, Fall Out Boy, Iyaz and Sean Kingston) and the master income and publishing rights of multiple Grammy Award winning artist Shaggy (including “It Wasn’t Me”, “Angel” and “Boombastic”).

 

The company entered the music acquisition space in 2021 with a focus on hits from a diverse range of genres and geographies, working across the music and tech ecosystem to manage its rights and grow music revenues.  Last month, MusicBird announced a major milestone $100million loan facility deal with leading international bank, MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) to power its growth and fund further music rights deals.