NHL Puck Drop 2021: League, APM Music Cut Production-Music Deal Agreement covers league and team uses from broadcast to social media By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Tuesday, October 12, 2021 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Under an exclusive deal with the NHL, Hollywood-based production-music supplier APM Music will provide all the music used, collectively and individually, by the league and its 32 teams for broadcast, in-venue, commercial, promotional, and social-media applications. This arrangement comes just ahead of tonight's start of the season, with NHL broadcasts shared by Disney's ESPN and Warner's TNT Sports under a seven-year deal commencing this season.
No dollar amount for the deal was announced but is estimated by an informed source as in the low to mid seven figures.
APM Music's Matthew Gutknecht: This is the soundtrack for a new era in the NHL.
We're in partnership with the NHL to provide and curate production music for every aspect of the NHL's operations, from television broadcasts to the music that fans hear in the arenas, to the commercials each team creates in its individual markets, says Matthew Gutknecht, director, sports entertainment, APM Music. This is the soundtrack for a new era in the NHL for the next seven years.
Younger Audience Targeted Timed with the change in broadcast outlets, the production-music deal reflects a desire to enhance the league's brand, according to Gutknecht, with a broader array of music content giving the league and teams more creative options that can be tailored to fit the specific needs of a variety of distribution outlets, from broadcast to social media.
Prior to this season, NHL broadcasts had been on NBC since 2006, with film and television composer William Goldstein's conventional orchestral-type scoring introducing the broadcasts.
Earlier this year, the NHL partnered with producer/artist Timbaland, accessing his Beatclub music marketplace and catalog for music, beats, and songs for some of the league's live and broadcast applications, including the 2021 Stanley Cup Semifinals and Final and the 2021 NHL Draft events and broadcasts. More specifically, the league used a remixed, lyrically modified version of rapper BIA's Skate track as the official theme song of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
An NHL source, speaking on background, says the league is proactively trying to skew toward a younger audience: We're open to all kinds of music, whatever works well for hockey, working with more modern artists with a younger fanbase.
Legal Issues a Driving Force' A second but equally important aspect of the deal is defensive: litigation between sports leagues, broadcasters, and music publishers. Such litigation has become more frequent in recent years as the range of outlets and number of sports media on the air and online have mushroomed, creating more potential for (mostly) unintended copyright infringements. For instance, music that might be properly licensed for live use in an arena leaking into a broadcast of a game could constitute an unintended but nonetheless very real, legally speaking, copyright infringement.
The rules of the game have changed, notes Gutknecht, referring to how rightsholders have been more forcefully asserting such infringements. We interface with legal departments far more now than in the past.
NHL's John Bochiaro: This [arrangement] gives the clubs the ability to use fully cleared, licensed music in the arena, with videos that they can post on digital and share with broadcast-rights holders.
In fact, avoiding potential copyright infringement was the driving force to do this deal in the first place, John Bochiaro, VP, game presentation, NHL. We work for the clubs, finding solutions for issues, and the legalities of using music is one of them. This [arrangement] gives the clubs the ability to use fully cleared, licensed music in the arena, with videos that they can post on digital and share with broadcast-rights holders.
Bochiaro, who was director of game entertainment for the NHL's New Jersey Devils 15 years ago, notes that the team was one of the first to do a deal with APM Music for licensed music.
APM Music, whose catalog numbers 970,000 tracks, is a joint venture of Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Group Publishing; however, none of the record labels' music or artists are part of the content to be provided. All music used by the league and its teams will be from APM Music's own productions.
The company has an extensive history in developing production music for broadcast sports. Clients have included the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, MLB's L.A. Dodgers, MLS's Philadelphia Union, and NBA's L.A. Lakers; production entities NASCAR, NFL Films, and PGA TOUR Productions; and collegiate athletics programs Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina, Georgia, and Clemson. Its sports-music roster includes some iconic tracks, such as Heavy Action, aka the Monday Night Football theme, and catalogs like the NFL Films Music Library and MLB Music Library.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
21/10/2025
As Amazon's Prime Video prepares to launch its coverage of NBA basketball under a major new deal, Grup Mediapro has announced that it is working with the st...
21/10/2025
ATLANTA Good news for consumers using an Atlanta DTH receiver to watch ATSC 3.0: with a new software update, they will be able to blanket their homes with Wi-Fi...
21/10/2025
While recent news has been heavily focused on Hispanic migration into the U.S., The 2025 Hispanic Market Report from Claritas highlights the fact that this gr...
21/10/2025
MAIDENHEAD, UK RWS has hired Michael Wayne as its head of media and entertainment in Los Angeles where he will lead the company's media localization busines...
21/10/2025
Imagine Communications and Rohde & Schwarz today announced a definitive agreement under which Imagine will acquire Pixel Power Limited, a wholly owned subsidiar...
21/10/2025
Atlanta DTH (ADTH) today announced a major update that will expand the functionality of its NEXTGEN TV receiver by enabling gateway capabilities allowing viewer...
21/10/2025
Heartland Video Systems, Inc. (HVS), a premier video systems integration, consulting, and expert ATSC 3.0 implementation firm announces that it has partnered wi...
21/10/2025
QuickLink, the leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest integration solutions, today announced the appointment of Austin Hinton as it...
21/10/2025
nternet connectivity startup Miri Technologies Inc. will use this week's NAB Show New York as the launch pad for its latest ground-breaking innovation, the ...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
NHL Puck Drop 2021: League, APM Music Cut Production-Music Deal Agreement covers league and team uses from broadcast to social media By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
