Rock said: “I put my heart and soul into these recordings. I know how much Merck loves music, so it was an easy deal to put together.”
Mercuriadis has said that power in the music industry will always ultimately sit with songwriters, and his is not the only firm currently on the hunt for rights.
Songwriter-producer Ian Levine sold his rights to a string of early hits by Take That to the publisher One Media iP Group this week, while Blue Raincoat Music Publishing signed a deal with the estate of Nick Drake, the artist whose albums like Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later and Pink Moon inspired the likes of Radiohead, REM and Paul Weller.
