Round Hill Buys Rights to a Modern English Classic, Plus Hits By KISS and Leo Sayer

Round Hill Music, the longtime catalog investment firm run by Josh Gruss, said this week it acquired select portions of the catalogs of British new wave band Modern English and American songwriter, musician and producer Vini Poncia.

The acquisitions include the publishing and master rights to Modern English’s 1983 hit “I Melt With You,” and Poncia’s publishing rights to his entire catalog, including the KISS classic “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” and “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” by Leo Sayer, both of which Poncia co-wrote. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Round Hill CEO Gruss, who founded the private equity music investment platform in 2010, said becoming a stakeholder in Modern English’s music was “particularly meaningful” because they were the first band he saw perform live when he was nine years old.

“That experience helped spark a lifelong love of music and to now be entrusted with stewarding their catalog is a full-circle moment,” Gruss said in a statement.

Best know for “I Melt With You,” the UK new wave group’s song appeared in the Valley Girl film and was a fixture on 1980s MTV. Though Modern English had other charting hits, including “Hands Across the Sea” and “Ink and Paper,” “Melt” has remained an airplay classic in part thanks to placements in TV shows and movies like Glee, 50 First Dates and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Over Poncia’s roughly six-decade career as in-demand songwriter and collaborator for Ringo Starr, Patty Smyth and The Ronettes, he produced two KISS albums and earned a Grammy award for Best R&B Song for co-writing “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.”

Round Hill, which employs around 50 people to manage, invest and license songs for sync opportunities, says its exploring ways to work Poncia’s catalog around the upcoming KISS avatar show.

“We’re seeing how such iconic artists can continue their legacy and marketability well into the future,” Gruss said. “Finding success through a variety of different platforms, including streaming, film and TV, [The Modern English and Vini Poncia catalogs] have shown their ability not just to maintain their enduring popularity, but to find new fans even long after their release.”

Round Hill Music LP has roughly $1 billion in assets under management and manages around 150 catalogs with more than 200,000 songs, including by Whitney Houston, Bruno Mars and Louis Armstrong. It recently acquired catalogs belonging to the Rod Stewart songwriter Carmine Appice, folk and yacht rock singer-songwriter Al Stewart and reggae rock band Dirty Heads.

Poncia was represented by Henry Root of Smith Entertainment Law Group represented, Modern English was advised by Monika Tashman of Loeb and Loeb and Round Hill was advised by Michael Selverne of Selverne Bradford.