In 1972 John Nice and Pat Seward founded Valentine Music in London, and it has answered to nobody since. The catalogue now runs from Dave Brubeck, represented outside the United States and Japan since 1977, to a Bakersfield single from 1962 that found its third audience on Netflix sixty years later, and it is run the way it was on the first day: song by song, writer by writer.
Many writers say they can never reach their publisher. If Valentine Music is handling your most important works, we will talk, regularly. Independent since 1972, boutique by choice.
Most copyrights just do not get the attention they deserve. Managed alongside tens of millions of other songs in the black box operations of large corporates, even great songs struggle to receive the administrative and creative focus necessary to generate the royalty income they should.
Valentine Music breathes life into copyright administration in a way that only an independent service can. With decades of experience, we know how to navigate the roadblocks of the global royalty infrastructure with human attention and the latest forensic tools, to chase down every last royalty and deliver publishing administration that is second to none.
TIME OUT, 1959
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In 1959 the Dave Brubeck Quartet released Time Out, the first jazz album to sell over a million copies, and the home of Take Five, Unsquare Dance and Blue Rondo a la Turk. Six decades of odd time signatures, improvised counterpoint and polytonality. Valentine has represented the Derry catalogue outside the US and Japan since 1977.
TIME OUTTAKES
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THE REAL AMBASSADORS
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LULLABIES
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THE CRAMPS, GOO GOO MUCK, 1981
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Recorded by the Bakersfield duo Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads in 1962, then remade by The Cramps in 1981 as unmistakable psychobilly for Psychedelic Jungle. In 2022 the song went viral on Jenna Ortega's dance scene in Netflix's Wednesday, and it now sits in the official LEGO app. One song, three audiences, sixty years apart.
GOO GOO MUCK
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WEDNESDAY, NETFLIX, 2022
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Judie Tzuke reached major fame in 1979 with her debut Welcome to the Cruise, having signed to Elton John's label in 1977 and toured the United States as his guest. Nearly fifty years and more than twenty studio albums later, she is a wholly self-managed independent artist. Many of the hits she wrote with guitarist Mike Paxman are with Valentine Music.
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The Ventures, Frank Mills, Marijohn Wilkin, Mary O'Hara, Darius Brubeck and Come On Train. Six further catalogues, filed for a later edition and not reviewed in this slice.