R.E.M. have inked an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) to represent their catalogue of songs.
The deal was announced by Jody Gerson, chairman and CEO, UMPG. Formed in 1980 by Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry, R.E.M. have career sales of over 85 million albums. Their catalogue features 15 studio albums (nine of which went Top 5 on the Billboard 200), including Murmur, Lifes Rich Pageant, Document, Green, Out Of Time, Automatic For The People, Monster, and their final album, Collapse Into Now.

“R.E.M. is one of a small number of benchmark artists who have changed the course of popular music during their renowned career and, over the past 30 years they have been the model for every artist that wants to organically develop their career with the ambition of someday reaching best band in the world status. We are honoured that R.E.M. has chosen us to take care of their generation-defining catalogue,” said Gerson.

Said Bertis Downs, longtime manager of R.E.M.: “As a band and an organisation, we are excited to join forces with Universal Music Publishing for the next phase of R.E.M.’s legacy career. Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe’s body of work stands alongside any artist and the Universal machine is unparalleled in terms of what we look for in a global publisher."

R.E.M. have won three Grammy Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.