Milwaukee-based print music publisher Hal Leonard LLC has acquired Austin, Texas-based Groove3, a music technology tutorial video platform. The transaction closed Sept. 12 for an undisclosed price.
Asa Doyle, chief executive officer and president of Groove3, and Antony Livoti, vice president, founded the company in 2003 and sold the company to Hal Leonard in this transaction. Both Doyle and Livoti will remain with Hal Leonard in leadership roles, a spokeswoman said. All seven of Groove3’s employees will be retained at its existing office in Austin, she said.
Groove3’s website offers video tutorials for musicians that want to learn about the latest music technology, such as Logic Pro X, Pro Tools, Studio One and Plug-Ins. Its tutorials are provided both a la carte and via a subscription model.
Hal Leonard is the largest educational music publisher in the world, with the top-selling products for learning guitar, piano and school music instruments. It has a catalog of more than 220,000 titles and its products are sold in more than 65 countries. Hal Leonard has more than 450 employees at 13 corporate offices worldwide.
Groove3 and Hal Leonard had previously shared content and worked together on projects, and with the acquisition Hal Leonard will be able to expand its product offerings.
“We’re excited to work with Groove3’s talented development and programming group to expand our online e-learning presence,” said Jeff Schroedl, executive vice president at Hal Leonard. “We’re also looking forward to creating new products with their authors and producers.”
“We’ve enjoyed working with their team on many projects already and look forward to pooling our brain trusts for some amazing new ventures,” Doyle said. “It’s great to partner with another group that shares our passion for music education and technology.”
Hal Leonard has made several acquisitions in recent years. In February 2017, it acquired music publication e-commerce site Sheet Music Plus, and in 2016, it acquired play-along recording company Music Minus One and Mequon-based educational piano score publisher Schaum Publications. The acquisitions have been driven by the 2016 sale of the majority of Hal Leonard by chairman Keith Mardak and his wife Mary Vandenberg to California private equity firm Seidler Equity Partners to advance its strategic growth.
