Ole Buys Award Winning Jody Williams Catalogue

Nashville’s ole, a globally competitive, Canadian-owned, full-service music publisher, has purchased the Jody Williams Music catalogue, adding over 3,300 titles to its already impressive repertoire. ole’s database, which reached nearly 40,000 songs with the acquisition, will also include a trio of top-10 hits form this week’s No. 1 U.S. country music album Taylor Swift.

Nashville’s ole, a globally competitive, Canadian-owned, full-service music publisher, has purchased the Jody Williams Music catalogue, adding over 3,300 titles to its already impressive repertoire. ole’s database, which reached nearly 40,000 songs with the acquisition, will also include a trio of top-10 hits form this week’s No. 1 U.S. country music album Taylor Swift.

Founded in 1999 by Jody Williams as a joint venture with Sony ATV Publishing, the catalogue is currently riding a hot streak with hits from Swift’s debut album, Taylor Swift, which has sold 3.2 million copies. Williams, now BMI’s Vice President of Writer/Publisher relations in Nashville, left the publishing company in 2006 to assume his role at BMI. Also included in the song library are country hits “Long Black Train,” “What If She’s an Angel,” and 2005Billboard Country Song of the Year “That’s What I Love About Sunday.”

ole boasts a team of 25 experienced industry professionals and has offices in Toronto, Nashville and Los Angeles. It has grown into Canada’s largest music publisher in three short years and has been named the 2007 CMA Music Publishing Company of the year, the first time in 15 years an independent publisher has been awarded the honor.

According to a press release, ole is “committed to being the best and most innovative global destination for world-class songwriters, composers, and management talent, and the first choice music source for creators in all media.” It is this global vision and motivation that Jody Williams took into consideration when looking for a new home for his catalogue.

“I really wanted to hand over the catalogue to a company who is as hungry to get songs recorded as I was… a company looking for a stronger foothold in Nashville, and ole was the perfect fit,” he explained. “They mean business, and I think the catalogue in the hands of Gilles Godard (Chief Creative Officer, ole Nashville) and his staff will yield a lot of success,” he added.

ole Chariman and CEO Robert Ott said the acquisition of the substantial Jody Williams Music catalogue is the latest investment in ole’s aggressive pursuit of music publishing intellectual property. “ole has acquired over $50 million of music publishing assets in the past couple of years and remains on an aggressive acquisition path in 2008,” he said.

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