Bad Bunny Collaborator MAG Re-Ups With Warner Chappell

Warner Chappell Music has renewed its global publishing deal with producer Marco “MAG” Borrero. A frequent Bad Bunny collaborator, MAG produced 15 of the 23 tracks on the blockbuster album “Un Verano Sin Ti,” which led to his 2022 Variety Hitmakers honor and his No. 1 position on Billboard’s Year-End Hot Latin Song Producers chart. “Un Verano Sin Ti” became the first all-Spanish album to top the year-end Billboard 200 chart as well as earn a nomination for Album of the Year Grammy award.

The Brooklyn-born, Puerto Rican-Dominican producer was mentored by Max Martin — the most successful songwriter-producer of the past 25 years — and over the course of his career has also collaborated with Rauw Alejandro, Arcángel, Bebe Rexha, Imagine Dragons, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato.

MAG said: “Guy, Ryan, Katy and the whole Warner Chappell team have been incredibly supportive over the past few years and I’m excited to continue building on our partnership.”

+ Cutting Edge Media Music, a financing and investment company specializing in music for film, television, video games and other media, has acquired the entire music catalog of the U.K.-based media company First Score Music Ltd.

The acquisition gives CEMM full master and publishing rights to over 75 scores, including films by Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s Imaginarium Productions, which is in production on an animated version of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” Also included in the acquisition is the film score for the upcoming Imaginarium/Searchlight film “Next Goal Wins,” with a score by Academy Award and Emmy-winner Michael Giacchino (“Up,” “The Incredibles,” “The Batman”), and directed by Academy Award-winner Taika Waititi (“JoJo Rabbit,” “Thor: Love and Thunder”).

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The acquired catalog also includes film scores by world class composers such as Carter Burwell, Christophe Beck, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Volker Bertelmann, John Debney, Benjamin Wallfisch, Andrew Lockington, David Newman, Rachel Portman, Mychael Danna, Craig Armstrong, David Buckley and Harald Kloser. 

“Imaginarium has a great creative and commercial relationship with Cutting Edge,” said Imaginarium’s Cavendish. Serkis added, “It is incredibly important for us to have partners in the musical sphere who are as knowledgeable, creative and clever as Cutting Edge’s Philip Moross and Tara Finnegan.”

CEMM was represented in the transaction by Tim Hegarty, the head of mergers and acquisitions for parent company Cutting Edge Group.

+ ASCAP President and Chairman of the Board Paul Williams announced organization’s 12 writer and 12 publisher members elected to serve on its board of directors for a two-year term beginning April 1, 2023.
In addition to Williams, the writer members who were re-elected in the at-large field are: composer/songwriter Jon Batiste; composer Richard Bellis; composer Bruce Broughton; songwriter/producer Desmond Child; composer Sharon Farber; Writer Vice Chair composer Dan Foliart; songwriter/composer Michelle Lewis; composer/producer Marcus Miller; songwriter Jimmy Webb; and composer Doug Wood. Composer Alex Shapiro was re-elected in the Symphonic and Concert field.

Newly elected as a publisher director is Jon Singer, Spirit Music. The publisher directors re-elected in the at-large field are: Peter Brodsky, Sony Music Publishing; Bob Bruderman, Kobalt; Marti Cuevas, Mayimba Music; Keith Hauprich, BMG US; Dean Kay, Lichelle Music Company; Evan Lamberg, Universal Music Publishing Group; Leeds Levy, Leeds Music; Carianne Marshall, Warner Chappell Music; Mary Megan Peer, peermusic; and Publisher Vice Chair Irwin Z. Robinson, Cromwell Music, Inc. James M. Kendrick, European American Music, was re-elected in the Symphonic and Concert field.