Industry Music publisher Website peermusic Founded 1928 | Subsidiaries Digitalpressure Founder Ralph Peer | |
Key people Ralph Peer, II: Chairman and CEO Headquarters Berkeley, California, United States Profiles | ||
D2f from a to z publishing downtown peermusic midem 2013
Peermusic is a United States based independent music publisher.
Contents
History
Ralph Peer, a field recording engineer and A&R representative for Victor Records, went on a scouting trip to Bristol, Tennessee. For two weeks, he recorded artists such as Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family in what later became famous as the Bristol sessions. With the success of these recordings, Peer would later establish Southern Music, which later was called peermusic. The company became very successful and influential in the 1930s. It hit the big time through Peer's introducing Central American music to the world. In 1940 there came another watershed when a dispute between the ASCAP and US radio stations led to the inauguration of the rival Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI). BMI supported music by blues, country and hillbilly artists, and Peer, through his Peer-International company, soon contributed a major part of BMI's catalogue.
During and after World War II Peer published songs such as "Deep in the Heart of Texas " and "You Are My Sunshine" (sung by Jimmie Davis, covered by Bing Crosby and many others), "Humpty Dumpty Heart" (Glenn Miller), "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" (Russ Morgan), "The Three Caballeros" (the Andrews Sisters), "Say a Prayer for the Boys Over There" (Deanna Durbin), and "I Should Care" and "The Coffee Song" (both Frank Sinatra). In 1945, he published Jean Villard Gilles's and Bert Reisfeld's composition "Les trois cloches" ("The Three Bells"), which was recorded by the Browns.
In the 1950s Peer published "Mockingbird Hill", a million seller for Patti Page; "Sway" (Dean Martin and Bobby Rydell); and the novelty "I Know an Old Lady" (Burl Ives). Then came rock 'n' roll, and Southern published hits by Buddy Holly, Little Richard, The Big Bopper and the Platters.
In 2007, peermusic announced the 50% acquisition of Malaco Music Group.
Ralph Peer II, the son of Ralph and Monique Peer, is the current Chairman and CEO of peermusic. Peer II is also the vice president and director of the National Music Publishers Association and the Harry Fox Agency. He is also a director and past president of the Country Music Association, an editor/director of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and Chairman of the International Confederation of Music Publishers. At the 2008 MIDEM, he was honored as "Music Maker of the Year." In 2013, he received the inaugural International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) award for "outstanding contribution to music publishing".