DCD Rights Pushes Musical Legends with 4K Bowie, Hendrix, Elvis Projects

U.K. distribution powerhouse DCD Rights is announcing strong pre-sales for its musical legend laden slate at MipTV.

The remastered release of “David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders from Mars” in stunning 4K leads the pack with a pre-sale to NHK Japan already in place. Premiering to market at MipTV is “Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision.” The doc lifts the lid on the creation of the legendary studio, a former nightclub which had played host to Chuck Berry and BB King before its reincarnation into the recording home of the heir apparent to the guitar god throne. Pre-sold to Sky in the U.K., it will air on Sky Arts later in 2024., James Anderson, sales manager at DCD Rights, told Variety.

Recent years have seen the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen all given the high end doc treatment, nostalgia seeming a powerful draw. DCD Rights’ slate illustrates the universal appeal of its music programming. 

The pre-sale of the “55th Anniversary Chicago Concert” to PBS and the launch of “Christmas At Graceland” are two other announcements, testament to the company’s strategic positioning within the market and a key niche among its over 3,500 hours of content. 

“DCD Rights has a long history in representing music content thanks to our founder Nicky Davies Williams’ background in the music industry.  We’ve worked with a variety of artists and formats as the requirements of our buyers have evolved over recent years.  There is certainly a strong appetite for concerts, both classic and new, from buyers and the music documentary has seen a big resurgence in recent years,” Anderson shared.

The Graceland concert, featuring contemporary artists like Lana Del Rey and John Legend performing at Elvis Presley‘s iconic home, looks like a seller’s dream with its mix of the classic with the contemporary. 

The criteria for choosing projects for distribution lean heavily towards concerts with globally recognizable artists in significant venues, and documentaries with enticing narratives, but niche bands may have their place. 

“We work with a variety of channels and services for our music catalog, from streaming services to linear broadcasters and niche music specialists, so have been able to find homes for a variety of artists.” Anderson explained. “The best known artists will certainly always appeal to the broadest selection of channels, but we have successfully distributed shows from artists with a smaller fan base. 

Concerts always have a long tail in terms of sales and we’ll see buyers relicensing numerous times or a number of broadcasters in the same territory licensing a concert in a way that you do not necessarily find with drama or factual.”

DCD Rights’ slew of titles underscores the unique cache a Bowie, Hendrix, or Elvis hold, and more broadly the IP potential of projects shaped around the legacies of legends in entertainment, the arts, and sport.