Sony/ATV signs Brit producer.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing has concluded a landmark deal with the British producer Mike Spencer, in an agreement in which the publisher will represent the future songwriting interests of Spencer and his production company.

As a producer Spencer has been behind hits for artists including Jamiroqui, Kylie Minogue and Newton Faulkner. The ever-shrinking income from mechanical royalties, however, drove him to look for new ways to get involved with developing artists without signing them up to a complicated production deal that he believes often gets in the way of artists' relationships with labels, publishers and management.

His solution was to lend his production expertise to developing artists in return for a share of their publishing income, thus creating a clean interest in their careers without the need for unnecessary involvement in other areas. "Over the past few years the returns on mechanical income have been dwindling and that hits me. So I came up with this idea. It buys me a certain proportion of writing credits, which doesn't affect other areas, in return for producing the record," he says.