What I shall continue to refer to as "that rather interesting new music venture from Bertelsmann", or BMG Rights Management to its mother, has formally launched its US operations by opening offices in New York, LA and Nashville.

Laurent Hubert, formerly a senior exec at BMG Music Publishing (Bertelsmann's old music publisher, sold to Universal in 2007), will be the newish company's COO for North America, while Deirdre O'Hara, previously of Sony/ATV, will be Chief Creative Officer for the region.

Confirming his company's formal arrival in the US, BMG Rights' Berlin-based großer käse Hartwig Masuch told reporters: "Since we started in 2008, BMG Rights Management has been offering transparent and client-oriented music rights management. Songwriters and artists in Europe have responded extremely well to our service-oriented approach and we are convinced this business model will be successful in the United States, too, as enormous interest expressed by industry professionals and initial signings have already confirmed".