A mysterious, small company has for several decades made good money on a number of the eighties and nineties most popular Norwegian records. After a formidable 2021 financial year and the sale of rights, the company has now been dissolved.
Updated less than 10 minutes ago
–
The company Ergo Rettigheter was mentioned in the Norwegian press for the first time in 2017, in a longer report in The class struggle.
It was about the Trøndelag rock legends Åge Aleksandersen, Terje Tysland and Hans Rotmo’s fight to regain rights to perhaps the most career-defining music any of them released – a fight that recently manifested itself in a lawsuit notice.
Riddle
In addition to the possible lawsuit, the two-man company Ergo Rettigheter has since the turn of the millennium had a steady and increasing income from digital rights for releases from the record company Norske Gram.
Norske Gram was central in the Norwegian music industry in the nineties, with releases from the above-mentioned Trøndelag residents, as well as other bestsellers such as DDE and Postgirobygget.
Among other well-known names the company released records with, we find among others Henning Kvitnes, Thomas Giertsen, Bjølsen Valsemølle, Nidarosdomens Guttekor, Björn Afzelius and Elisabeth Andreassen.
In the spring of 1998, VG reported that half of Norwegian albums sold over the counter came from Norske Gram.
In 1999, the company was acquired by the record company EMI, which was later incorporated into the record company Warner Music.
Why Ergo ended up disposing of the digital rights has been a mystery. The company has also been mentioned in Adresseavisen and Today’s business.
Increased by 17 mill.
It is certain that the rights have paid off. In Ergo’s first ten financial years, turnover varied from NOK 319,000 to NOK 809,000.
In 2011, around the time when power services really began to take off and become profitable for licensees, Ergo passed one million in turnover for the first time.
In 2018, they passed two million – and this lasted through both 2019 and 2020.
Then, in 2021, Ergo suddenly increased its turnover by over 17 million, ending at 19.2, according to their annual accounts.
Profit before tax was NOK 11.95 million, and equity was adjusted up to NOK 9.9 million.
On January 4 this year, the company was dissolved.
– Nice collaboration
Warner Music – which is also behind the above-mentioned lawsuit notice – confirms to VG that last year they bought back the right to manage digital distribution of the Norske Gram records.
– Ergo has previously licensed digital distribution for the Norwegian Gram catalog. The distribution is now back at Warner Music, writes Warner’s general manager Leif O. Ribe in an e-mail.
VG has asked Ribe whether the purchase price is in the order of magnitude corresponding to Ergo’s increase in turnover of 17 million.
– I have no comment on the financial conditions. I have no idea about Ergo’s accounting figures.
Half of Ergo was owned by Norwegian Rune Johannessen (72). He taxes to Nordre Follo and according to the tax lists had a fortune of over five million in 2020.
– Yes, that was it, he answers the phone from Spain when VG asks if 2021 was profitable for Ergo. He does not want to comment on the figures further.
Johannessen says that Ergo has now been closed down because there is no more business in the company.
– We have had a good collaboration with Warner for many years.
– What exactly are the work tasks you perform as a digital distributor?
– I will not comment on that.
Warner Music also does not want to comment on what kind of work Ergo has done.
Acquisition
Danish Verner Bach Pedersen (70) owned the other 50 percent of Ergo. VG has not succeeded in getting in touch with him.
In 1993, Bach Pedersen and his brother Benny started the record company CMC, which specialized in compilation albums by artists such as Smokie and Kenny Rogers.
They had a license agreement with Norske Gram, and invested heavily in TV-advertised CD releases – of the type you could often see here in Norway on TV 2, which was the sole owner of Norske Gram from 1997 until EMI took over in 1999.
In Denmark, EMI acquired CMC in 1997. In 1999, EMI acquired Norske Gram from TV 2.
EMI’s then Norwegian director Michael Manasse says that he does not know how Ergo hijacked the digital distribution for Norske Gram.
EMI was acquired by Warner Music in 2013. At Warner’s Norwegian office, there is currently only one EMI employee left from 1999, according to him, Ivar Noer. He is currently CFO of the company, and says that he was not involved in the acquisition of Norske Gram.
Former Ergo half Rune Johannessen tells VG that he does not want to go into details.
– It’s up to Warner to answer.
Warner’s general manager Leif O. Ribe does not want to comment on how Ergo got his agreement.
Ribe also does not want to answer whether Warner has or has had similar agreements with other players as the one they have had with Ergo.
–
