Independent Music Group
| Private | |
| Industry | Music publishing |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Headquarters | 3 York House, Langston Road, Loughton, Essex, IG10 3TQ |
Area served | UK and worldwide |
Key people |
Ellis Rich (Chief Executive) Andy Bailey (Director of A&R) |
| Products | Sheet music |
| Website | IMG |
The Independent Music Group or IMG is the UK's largest independent publisher of sheet music.
History
It was founded in 1989 by Ellis Rich, who had worked in the international division of EMI Music Publishing (managing EMI's UK catalogue from 1975–81), as the International Music Network. It acquired publishing catalogues and small publishers. The company deals with smaller publishers and artists to get their work to a larger international network. and market. Smaller publishers would not get their work published or distributed through large outfits such as the Music Sales Group and International Music Publications (the two main UK music publishers), which (effectively) operate something approaching a duopoly, with their control of the mainstream music publishing market.
The internet has since helped smaller music publishers to affordably reach a global market, at the same time as helping many people to illegally share (distribute) copyrighted music, to the chagrin of the mainstream music industry.
Between 2004 and 2011, the Independent Music Group represented the publishing catalog of the American songwriter Alexander Perls.
Structure
Ellis Rich, the Chief Executive, is the Chairman of PRS for Music and the MCPS-PRS Alliance. He was the former Chairman of the Music Publishers Association and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS). He had formed E&S Music with Simon Cowell in the 1980s - Cowell's first commercial venture.