Reservoir Media (also known as ''Reservoir Media Management'', ''Reservoir'', ''Reservoir Holdings, Inc.'', NASDAQ: RSVR) is an independent music company based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with additional offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, Toronto, London, and Abu Dhabi. In 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017 Reservoir was included in

Billboard (magazine) ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the musi ...

’s Publisher's Quarterly Top 10 Market Share.

History

''Reservoir'' was founded in 2007 as a

Music Publishing A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...

Company by Iranian-Canadian

Golnar Khosrowshahi Golnar Khosrowshahi (born September 18, 1971) is an Iranian-Canadian businesswoman and the CEO and Founder of Reservoir Media Management, Inc. She is currently a member of the New York Philharmonic Board of Directors, and she also served as Boar ...

, who is the current CEO. Khosrowshahi was named to ''Billboard''’s Power List in 2020 and 2022, and was honored as one of ''Billboard''’s Most Powerful Female Executives in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and a ''Billboard'' Indie Power Player in 2017 and 2018. Additionally, in 2022, Billboard named her the recipient of the Executive of the Year Award at their annual Women In Music Awards. That same year, Khosrowshahi was named to

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

's New York Women's Impact Report 2022. Khosrowshahi is the daughter of

Hassan Khosrowshahi Hassan Khosrowshahi ( fa, حسن خسروشاهی) , is an Iranian-Canadian business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He founded Future Shop, a Canadian consumer electronics chain store that was acquired by Best Buy in 2001 for c.$580 millio ...

, an investor, and philanthropist, and is the cousin of

Dara Khosrowshahi Dara Khosrowshahi ( fa, دارا خسروشاهی, ; born May 28, 1969) is an Iranian-American businessman and the chief executive officer of Uber. Khosrowshahi was previously CEO of Expedia Group, a company that owns several travel fare aggreg ...

, the current CEO of

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

. ''Reservoir'' owns over 140,000 copyrights and over 36,000 master recordings dating back to the early 1900s. The publishing catalog includes pieces written and performed by

Billy Strayhorn William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take ...

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...

John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singe ...

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released eleven studio albums, five compilations and three li ...

Phantogram (band) Phantogram is an American music duo from Greenwich, New York, formed in 2007 and consisting of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter. The band define their music as electronic rock, dream pop, electronica and trip h ...

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

Camila Cabello Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao (; ; born March 3, 1997) is a Cuban-born American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, which became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. While in ...

Bruno Mars Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is known for his stage performances, retro showmanship, and for performing in a wide range of musical s ...

Cardi B Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar Cephus (, ; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper and songwriter. She first gained popularity as an influencer on Vine and Instagram. From 2015 to early 2017, she appeared as ...

and

Thomas McClary (musician) Thomas McClary (born October 6, 1949) is an American musician, guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer best known as the founder and lead guitarist of The Commodores. McClary is credited with having created the signature sound of Th ...

The Commodores Commodores are an American funk and Soul music, soul band, which were at their peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed wit ...

. The company's roster of active writers and producers includes Levi Hummon,

James Fauntleroy James Edward Fauntleroy II (born May 16, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Inglewood, California. He is best known for writing credits on tracks by high-profile artists such as Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, Kendrick ...

Ali Tamposi Alexandra Tamposi (born November 17, 1989) is an American songwriter from West Palm Beach, Florida. She is best known for co-writing Kelly Clarkson's song "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," 5 Seconds of Summer's song "Youngblood (5 Seconds of S ...

, and

Jamie Hartman Jamie Hartman (born 1971) is an English songwriter and producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, and the former lead singer of the indie-pop band Ben's Brother. Early life Hartman was born and raised in London. Career Ben's Brother Hartman formed ...

. ''Reservoir''’s collection of film music includes rights to scores to motion pictures

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...

, the Pirates of the Caribbean series,

Gladiator (2000 film) ''Gladiator'' is a 2000 epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson. The film was co-produced and released by DreamWorks Pictures and Universal Pictures. DreamWorks Pict ...

and

The Dark Knight (film) ''The Dark Knight'' is a 2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan. Based on the DC Comics superhero, Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman Begins'' (2005) and the second instal ...

Trilogy created by composer-producer

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...

. The company expanded in 2010 by acquiring TVT Music Enterprises (its roster including Scott Storch,

Lil Jon Jonathan H. Smith (born January 17, 1971) better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, producer and former frontman of the rap group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz. He was instrumental in the emergence of the hip hop subgenre cru ...

and

The Cinematics The Cinematics were an alternative rock band founded in 2003 in Glasgow, Scotland, and disbanded in 2011. The band released two full-length albums, ''A Strange Education'' (2007) and '' Love and Terror'' (2009), as well as a five-track EP, " ...

), Reverb Music in 2012, P&P Songs in 2013, First State Media Group (from

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was founded in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its ...

) in 2014,

Century Media A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

's songwriters in 2017,

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ellis-Wright Ag ...

in 2019, Shapiro Bernstein and ''Atlantic Screen Music'' in 2020. Reservoir also has a partnership with PopArabia, founded by Spek who serves as Reservoir's EVP of International & Emerging Markets. The company also represents recorded music through

Tommy Boy Records Tommy Boy Entertainment is an American independent record label and multimedia brand founded in 1981 by Tom Silverman. The label is credited with helping and launching the music careers of Queen Latifah, Afrika Bambaataa, Stetsasonic, Digital U ...

, and

Philly Groove Records Philly Groove Records was a soul music label started by Stan Watson and Sam Bell in 1967, with noted producer Thom Bell doing A&R. The label's best-known artists were male vocal group the Delfonics and female group First Choice. Both acts enjoyed ...

and manages artists with Blue Raincoat Music and Big Life Management. Reservoir was named Publisher of the Year Award at

Music Business Worldwide Music Business Worldwide (MBW) is a global music industry news and analysis website launched in 2015 by former ''Music Week'' editor Tim Ingham. As of December 2020, it ranked 22,845 in the list of most visited global websites according to Alexa ...

’s A&R Awards in 2017 and 2019. The company also won

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

’s Independent Publisher of the Year in 2020 and in 2022. Reservoir’s President and COO, Rell Lafargue also serves on the board of directors for the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), and Music Publishers Canada (MPC). In 2021, Reservoir also became a publicly traded company, listed on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

stock exchange under the ticker RSVR. The IPO was the result of a business combination with

special-purpose acquisition company A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a "blank check company", is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional i ...

Roth CH Acquisition Co. II. in March 2022, Reservoir acquired rights in the catalog of the film-score composer

Henry Jackman Henry Pryce Jackman (born 1974) is an English composer. He composed music for films such as '' Kong: Skull Island'', '' X-Men: First Class'', ''Winnie the Pooh'', ''Wreck-It Ralph'', ''Puss in Boots'', '' Monsters vs. Aliens'', '' Captain Phi ...

References

{{Improve categories, date=July 2021 Companies listed on the Nasdaq Entertainment companies based in New York City