The Beatles And Bravado Come Together

LONDON and NEW YORK, June 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Apple Corps Ltd., and Bravado, Universal Music Group's global merchandising company, announced today that they have signed an agreement granting Bravado International Group the rights to offer official Beatles merchandise in North America.  This agreement, which is effective July 1st 2013, brings together the iconic band's North American merchandising rights and recorded music catalog under one roof, enabling Universal Music Group to provide a unified marketing strategy for the music and associated products of the most influential and beloved band in the history of music.

Tom Bennett, CEO of Bravado said, "We are extremely honored to have this opportunity to work with The Beatles.  We fully recognize that representing artists of this magnitude comes with enormous responsibility, and with our unparalleled creative team and infrastructure, we will apply the industry's best resources to execute the Beatles' vision to create products that their fans will love."

Commented Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group, "All of us at Universal Music Group are very excited about extending our relationship with the Beatles' iconic brand to include both merchandise and their legendary recordings, and about the potential for innovative marketing of creative new products."

In addition to their historic musical success, The Beatles have achieved great success with a wide variety of branded memorabilia and merchandise.  With this agreement, the collection will now benefit from Bravado's highly regarded experts in the creative, sales, marketing, e-commerce and sourcing areas of the merchandising world. 

Apple Corps. Ltd. and Bravado are working together to create a wide range of new and unique offerings for the band both through retail, online and licensing partners.  This first slate of products is expected to be available beginning in July of 2013.

ABOUT BRAVADO

Bravado is the only global, 360 degree full service merchandise company, develops and markets high-quality licensed merchandise to a world-wide audience. The company works closely with new and established entertainment clients, creating innovative products carefully tailored to each artist or brand. Product is sold on live tours, via selected retail outlets and through Web-based stores. Bravado also licenses rights to an extensive network of third-party licensees around the world. The company maintains offices in London, Los Angeles, New York, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo and Sydney. Under the Universal Music Group umbrella, Bravado is able to leverage a global sales and distribution network from the world's largest record company, as well as the group's significant marketing strength.

Bravado artists include Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Eminem, Kanye West, Metallica, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Guns 'N Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lil Wayne, Green Day, Black Sabbath, and The Killers, among many others.

About Apple Corps Ltd.

Apple Corps Ltd. was founded by The Beatles in 1968 to oversee the band's own creative and business interests. As part of its management of The Beatles' entire intellectual property canon, the London-based company has administered the legendary band's recorded catalogue, with more than 800 million physical and digital albums sold to date.  Apple Corps has also piloted innovative Beatles projects which have become benchmarks for pioneering accomplishment, including The Beatles Anthology series, the record-breaking, 30 million-selling album The Beatles 1, The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil®, which has played to more than six million audience members since its June 2006 opening at the Mirage in Las Vegas, the GRAMMY-winning physical and iTunes releases of The Beatles' LOVE album and documentary feature film, All Together Now, and the universally-acclaimed, GRAMMY-winning CD, vinyl and iTunes release of The Beatles' 13 remastered studio albums. The Beatles Help!, Yellow Submarine, and Magical Mystery Tour feature films have also been digitally restored with great care for DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes release.  Additional information about The Beatles is available at www.thebeatles.com.

SOURCE Universal Music Group