@MIDEM: Stein, Gottehrer Revive Blue Horizon January 25, 2010
- Global
| Indies
By Andre Paine, Cannes
Industry vets Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer were reunited at the MIDEM conference in Cannes, where they announced the revival of the Blue Horizon label.
The pair behind Blue Horizon's U.S. label partner, Sire Records, has decided to revive the U.K. label, which released blues artists such as Otis Spann and bands including Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack in the '60s.
The revived Blue Horizon will be based in the New York City office of the Orchard, of which Gottehrer is founder and chief creative officer.
Blue Horizon, which was distributed by CBS under exclusive contract, was in operation until the '70s. The label's repertoire is released by Sony Music Entertainment and the new label will not have access to the old catalog.
Stein, VP of Warner Bros. Records, joined Gottehrer in Cannes for the Jan. 25 announcement. Gottehrer told Billboard.biz the label will look for new talent to distribute through the Orchard, while Warner Music Group will have the opportunity to participate in releases.
"In Europe and the U.K. it has a great deal more significance than it would in the United States," Gottehrer tells Billboard.biz of the Blue Horizon label.
"The continent [Europe] and England is where we started the success of Sire," he adds.
Physical product will be released "where necessary" but the label will initially focus on digital releases, on a global basis. It has not announced any band signings yet.
"The real reason for doing this is both Seymour and I want to get back to functioning in a creative way [together] and discovering and working with artists," says Gottehrer, although he added that "we both work at great companies" (Warner Music Group and the Orchard).
WMG will "have the opportunity to step in and bring it to a wider audience," says Gottehrer of Blue Horizon signings, although the major has no equity stake or formal relationship with the label.
"The idea would be to get to a point where we work together with a shared vision," he says.
The original Blue Horizon company was founded by British record producer Mike Vernon. Sire later took a 50% stake and went on to take control of the company, although Sony has the catalog.
"The significant thing is Seymour and I coming back together, but the catalog is still owned by what was CBS, which is now Sony," says Gottehrer. "They continue with the catalog, it's just [us] moving ahead with new music and using the name."
"We felt this would be a good opportunity to reactivate something from the past with a tradition and bringing it to the future," he adds. "It allows us to move into the future while we are true to the traditions of the past."
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