Albert Music

Albert Music, formerly J Albert and Son is an Australian company with an estimated worth in 2009 of more than A$209 million. The company has major interests in music publishing and production and it currently earns significant royalties through its subsidiary, Albert Productions which manages the music catalogue of the Australian rock band AC/DC. More recently Alberts has formed an alliance with Stuart & Sons to manufacture handcrafted pianos.

Alberts was acquired by BMG Rights Management in July 2016.^[1]

History

Swiss horologist Jacques Albert migrated to Sydney in 1884 with his family.^[2] Jacques Albert established a clock, watch and occasional violin repair business in Newtown, Sydney the following year.

Albert and his son Frank began importing and selling a wider range of musical instruments including a Boomerang mouth organ.^[3] The company trademarked the word 'boomerang' and stamped it on German manufactured mouth organs. The distinctive instruments were a run away success selling at a rate of 800 a week by 1897.^[4]

By 1902 J. Albert & Son diversified into music retail and publishing, opening a shopfront in King Street in central Sydney. Later still J. Albert & Son struck deals with American and British music publishers, purchasing the copyright for songwriters such as Irving Berlin and George Gershwin.^[5] In 1926 J. Albert & Son co-founded the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA)

Frank Albert was a founding member and director of the Australian Broadcasting Company, which ran the Commonwealth Government's eight national radio stations. When the government resumed the licence three years later, Alberts used the proceeds to establish Radio Station 2UW.^[6] During the heyday of radio, broadcasts of harmonica competitions were staged in town halls.^[7]

Frank's son Alexis, assumed the role of Managing Director of J.Albert & Son in 1931. Over the next 50 years the J. Albert & Son empire gradually acquired interests in a network of eight stations. The stations included 4BC in Brisbane, 3DB in Melbourne and 2CC in Canberra. Later still in the 1950s the company became a major shareholder in ATV Channel Seven.^[8]

In 1964 the Albert family founded Albert Productions, Australia's first independent record label devoted exclusively to signing and recording Australian pop artists. The Easybeats are the most successful artists to sign to the recording label. The label was very successful during the 1970s when the stable of artists and in particular AC/DC brought Australia to international prominence in popular music.

In 2007 Albert Music acquired the Origin Network Company which manage the copyrighted work and music catalogues of the Australian recording artists Lee Kernaghan, Richard Clapton, Rogue Traders, Mike Brady, Paul Grabowsky, Joe Dolce, Chris Neal, Cezary Skubiszewski, Parrish Muhoberac, and Paul Wiltshire.^[9]

On 5 July, 2016 BMG and the Albert family announced they had reached agreement for BMG to acquire the Australian music publishing and recording company, J Albert & Son Pty Ltd. Alberts will now form part of BMG Australia, the Sydney-based operation of BMG launched in early 2016. Ownership of most of the Alberts music publishing and recordings catalogue transfers to BMG. The Albert family has retained their interests in the catalogues of AC/DC and Vanda, Young & Wright given their long-standing relationships. BMG will administer the music publishing catalogues worldwide on behalf of the family.

Current activities

Alberts has longstanding community partnerships in the form of the McDonald’s Performing Arts Challenge; working with disadvantaged youth through Mission Australia; and research and treatment through Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia.

References