Sony Music Masterworks is continuing its campaign of acquisitions in the live music and family-friendly entertainment space, this time with the purchase of production services company Black Ink Presents via Masterworks’ company Terrapin Station Entertainment.
Under the agreement, announced on Wednesday (July 12), Terrapin Station will take a majority stake in Black Ink Presents.
Black Ink’s CEO, John Kinsner, as well as CFO Alek Deva and COO Mike Kasper, will continue to oversee the company’s day-to-day operations. They will work with Terrapin Founder and CEO Jonathan Shank to develop new productions and “innovative live experiences” for IP-based entertainment, including cruise entertainment, concerts and immersive exhibits.
Black Ink Presents is known for its “live-to-film” shows, which feature a full orchestra playing the score to a film live and synced to a screening of the film. The company provides creative direction, design and production management for concerts, tours and other special and immersive events across the US.
Recent projects supported by Black Ink include composer Danny Elfman’s 2022 performances at Coachella and the Hollywood Bowl, and Get Happy: A Judy Garland Centennial Celebration. Among the company’s live-to-film productions are Disney’s Encanto In Concert, screenings of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, as well as the Disney animated films Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid.
The company has also made live-to-film productions out of the movies Get Out, Chicago, The Batman, The Evil Dead, The Goonies, and Ghostbusters.
Founded in 2020 by Jonathan Shank, Los Angeles-headquartered Terrapin Station Entertainment’s successes include Disney Junior Dance Party, Bob Marley One Love Experience and Deal or No Deal Live, the latter two being collaborations with Black Ink Presents, with whom Terrapin has had a working relationship for several years.
“I’ve collaborated with Black Ink on a wide range of projects, and they are tremendously creative and future focused,” Shank said in a statement.
“They have strong knowledge of the intellectual property space, they’ve worked on a range of innovative projects, and they have a passion for finding new pathways. Their skill set, combined with Terrapin’s growing IP roster, will give us a solid foundation, and further expand our presence in non-traditional entertainment.”
John Kinsner added: “After years of working closely with Jonathan and his team, we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to deepen our partnership with Terrapin and the broader Sony Music Masterworks group.
“This next chapter represents an unparalleled opportunity for Black Ink to continue to grow, and to build new live entertainment experiences on the cutting edge of music, media, and technology.”
The Black Ink deal marks the latest in a long line of acquisitions for Sony Music Masterworks, which started out as a spin-off from Sony’s classical music division, but has since expanded into family-friendly and non-traditional live entertainment, on top of expanding its catalog of recorded music.
“[Black Ink’s] skill set, combined with Terrapin’s growing IP roster, will give us a solid foundation, and further expand our presence in non-traditional entertainment.”
Jonathan Shank, Terrapin Station Entertainment
It acquired a majority stake in Terrapin Station in 2020, in a joint venture that saw Shank continue as CEO at Terrapin.
Other Masterworks acquisitions include Raymond Gubbay Ltd. – the London-based concert and promotion company that specializes in blending special effects with classical music to create such shows as John Williams Spectacular, Zimmer vs. Williams and Sci-Fi Spectacular – as well as Los Angeles-headquartered Milan Records, which specializes in film and TV soundtracks, among them Ghost, Deadpool, The Revenant and HBO’s Succession.
Masterworks has also acquired UK-headquartered concert promotion and production company Senbla, which has worked with such artists as Ennio Morricone, Soft Cell, Burt Bacharach and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and a majority stake in MAC Global, a Dubai-headquartered concert promotion, events, talent management and production company focused on Middle Eastern markets.
“This next chapter represents an unparalleled opportunity for Black Ink to continue to grow, and to build new live entertainment experiences on the cutting edge of music, media, and technology.”
John Kinsner, Black Ink Presents
In 2020, Masterworks inked a strategic partnership with classical music publishing company Wise Music Group. At the time, the London-headquartered company owned or controlled some half a million copyrights and represented nearly 100 composers and songwriters working in classical music, opera, ballet, film, TV and advertising.
Also in 2020, Masterworks joined forces with independent touring execs Stephen Lindsay and Brett Sirota to form RoadCo Entertainment LLC, a booking agency specializing in live family entertainment. The company has since worked on such productions as Johnny Cash: The Official Concert Experience, Bluey’s Big Play, Avatar The Last Airbender: A Symphonic Quest, and Escape It, a Las Vegas show based on Stephen King’s It.
Earlier this year, Masterworks acquired Barcelona-based Proactiv Entertainment, a worldwide producer of live music and experiential events whose repertoire includes numerous productions based on high-value IP, such as Disney on Ice, The Lion King, WWE Live, Monster Jam, Harry Potter In Concert, Star Wars In Concert and Peppa Pig.Music Business Worldwide
