Sonoton

Sonoton claims to be the world's largest independently owned Production Music Library. Formed 1965 by Rotheide and Gerhard Narholz in Munich (Germany), the company owns the copyrights of over 130,000 compositions and musical recordings of all genres. With more than 35 subsidiaries worldwide, Sonoton licences the use of its music for TV, motion picture, advertising and internet productions.

1965 Rotheide and Gerhard Narholz establish Sonoton as a company in Munich, Germany. Gerhard Narholz, songwriter for artists such as Petula Clark, Bill Ramsey and Heidi Brühl, and composer for German feature films and television series, provides specific film and television music as background music, thus introducing library music in Germany.

1965 - 1970 Sonoton continues to develop the library business in Germany. The initial TV-specific music catalogue is expanded into a variety of genres through works of other composers. 1969 Sonoton enters the international market through the British BERRY MUSIC company, who sub-publishes Sonoton productions worldwide on the library music labels CONROY, STUDIO ONE and PROGRAMME PRODUCTIONS. Sonoton enters the commercial record market, producing Easy Listening Music for Japan, which is released on Polydor Records and King Records, Tokyo.

1970 - 1980 Using the a.k.a. Norman Candler, Gerhard Narholz composes, arranges and conducts over 20 LPs with his large string orchestra, the MAGIC STRINGS, internationally released on the labels Decca Records/ Telefunken and King Records. In 1971, Norman Candler receives the “3 Star Award” from BBC London for “Best Album of the Year”. Sonoton expands its Easy Listening catalogue with recording artists Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Ted Heath, Acker Bilk, Xavier Cugat, Horst Jankowski and Franck Pourcel.

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