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KPM Music is a British production music library and distributor (formerly EMI Production Music) founded in 1955.


KPM is an acronym for its founders, Robert Keith and William Prowse. The men opened retail outlets to sell theatre tickets, instruments, music and eventually records. In 1955, with the advent of commercial television, the music publishing department became a separate company and was acquired by a London commercial television franchise, Associated-Rediffusion. The following year the original KP library was established under the management of Patrick Howgill. The first twenty-five 78 rpm records were recorded with a budget of $7,500. Many of the original recordings have been remastered and reissued on the KPM Archive Series, such as "Famous Radio & TV Themes." In fact, several of the first KPM tracks are still regularly used today.

In 1959, the library merged with Peter Maurice Publishing to form the new KPM Music Group. The mid-1960s were KPM's golden years. Robin Phillips,  head of KPM after Desmond Irwin, launched the KPM 1000 series (fondly known as "Greensleeves," due to the uniform dark green LP covers) introducing writers from jazz, pop and other contemporary fields. During this time KPM music became the sound of modern television with themes like Monday Night Football's "Heavy Action" which are still instantly recognizable. The library's repertoire and recognition grew exponentially.

KPM Music Group became part of the world-renowned EMI family in 1969. By that time the library was so well-known and highly respected around the world that the distinctive KPM name was retained. EMI acquired Affiliated Music Companies in 1972, and the new grouping become EMI Music Publishing Ltd, today the top music publishing company in the world.

Peter Cox was named head of KPM in 1977 and immediately worked to progress the library business into what the clients of tomorrow would need. KPM has always embraced new technology both in the way music is recorded and pressed. In November 1984, KPM released the album "Surprise Surprise" on compact disk; one of the first CDs ever made in the UK. KPM became the first music library to move away from vinyl and work exclusively in CD format.[1]

In 2005, KPM Music and Music House merged to form KPM Musichouse which became EMI's production music division. In 2011, KPM Musichouse was rebranded as EMI Production Music. At the same time the name was adopted by EMI's German (previously Selected Sound), Dutch (previously AV Music Publishers) and Spanish (previously Music Contact International) production music divisions. EMI Music Publishing was acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing (now Sony Music Publishing as of January 1, 2021).

In October 2020, Sony/ATV has announced that it is merging its two production music divisions – Extreme Music and EMI Production Music – into one global operation, to be led by Russell Emanuel.[2]

On September 13, 2021, the former EMI Production Music division rebranded as KPM Music. [3] Likewise, the brand was also adopted by ex-EMI PM's German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Spanish, and South African units. The Australian unit rebranded in November of the same year.

On November 10, 2022, it was announced that KPM Music's catalog (as well as all other libraries hosted on their site) will be moving exclusively (excluding France and North America due to both KPM and Extreme still being represented by different companies in these terrtiories) to Extreme Music's website in early 2023. Ultimately, KPM's libraries moved to Extreme on May 10, 2023 with KPM's site being still available for short period after the merger.

Labels[]

Sub-Labels[]

  • KPM Main Series
  • KPM Classical Series
  • KPM World Music Series
  • Shine (until May 2023 KPM Shorts)
  • KPM Trailers
  • KPM 1000 Series
  • KPM Brownsleeves
  • KPM Tool Kit
  • KPM International
  • FTV Media
  • FTV Media Online
  • One More Time
  • Swank Cafe
  • The Common Good
  • Trailer Candy

Albums[]

Used By[]

Movies[]

  • Deadpool 2 (2018)
  • Jackie Brown (1997)
  • Journey Back To Oz (1974)
  • The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
  • Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
  • The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)
  • Sydney White (2007)
  • Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Series[]

Home Videos[]

Other productions[]

TV Networks[]

  • Ale Kino!
  • ANT1 (Greece)
  • Band
  • Cartoon Network
  • CBeebies (Poland)
  • Channel 4
  • CITV
  • Discovery Channel (EMEA)
  • Disney Channels Worldwide
  • Fox
  • M-Net (South Africa)
  • National Geographic Channel (EMEA)
  • Nickelodeon
  • Polsat
  • Record TV
  • Rede Globo
  • Rede Tupi
  • RedeTV!
  • SBT
  • Sci-Fi Channel (Syfy)
  • Showtime
  • TBS
  • TVN (Chile)
  • Telewizja Polska
  • Treehouse TV
  • TV Cultura
  • TVN (Poland)

Theme Parks and FECs[]

  • Chuck E. Cheese's

Video Games[]

  • Joe Danger
  • Joe Danger 2: The Movie

Logos[]

Flagship library[]

Distributor (formerly KPM Musichouse and EMI Production Music)[]

Foreign distributors[]

  • Bulgaria
    • Animato Music Publishing
  • Czech Republic
    • EMI Music Publishing Czech Republic (until 2015)
    • Studio Fontana (2015-present)
  • France
    • L'Illustration Musicale (196?-197?)
    • Éditions Musicales Champs-Élysées (197?-1984)
    • EMI Music Publishing France (1984-1995)
    • Kapagama (1996-December 2015)
    • Montmorency Music Agency (January 2016-present)
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Hungary
    • EMI Music Publishing Hungary / Fish Music (until 2014)
    • V4 Music Ltd. (2015-2018)
    • Studio Fontana (2019-present)
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Russia and CIS
    • SBA Music Publishing / Galarec (until mid-2010's)
    • Prime Time AV Lab Ltd (mid-2010's-present)
  • Spain:
    • Sintonia / Multimusic (1980-late 1990's)
    • Music Contact / EMI Production Music Spain (late 1990's-September 12, 2021)
    • KPM Music / Sony Music Publishing Spain (September 13, 2021-present)
  • Ukraine
    • Comp Music Publishing (until 2014)
    • PC "Worlds music" (2014-present)

  • Australia
  • Brazil
    • Fermata (196?-1969)
    • Itaipu (Sociedade Brasileira de Edições, Publicidade e Serviços Artísticos) (1969-198?)
    • EMI Production Music (2011-September 12, 2021)
    • KPM Music (September 13, 2021-present)
  • Canada
  • India
  • Israel:
    • The Media Men Group (until 2015)
    • Music 972 / Dalia Publishing (2015-present)
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico:
    • Fermata (196?-197?)
    • Music & Images (until July 2008)
    • EMI Production Music / KPM Music / Sony Music Publishing Mexico (August 2008-present)
  • Middle East and North Africa:
    • Big Bang & Fuzz (2004-mid-2010's)
    • PopArabia (mid-2010's-present)
  • Singapore
  • South Korea
    • EMI Music Publishing South Korea
  • United States
  • See also[]

    References[]

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