MUMBAI: Universal Music Group and Andrew Lloyd Webber have signed long-term, global recording and music publishing agreements, which renew and expand a long-standing partnership between the two.

Under these new arrangements with Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, Universal Music Group will exclusively distribute and market the composer’s recorded music catalogue in digital and physical formats, and Universal Music Publishing Group will administer and exploit Really Useful’s extensive music publishing interests, including their representation for film, TV, advertising and other mediums.

Lloyd Webber said, "I am delighted to have renewed my partnership with Universal Music. They have been wonderful custodians of my music for over three decades, and it is a relationship that my colleagues and I at RUG value most highly. Together we have taken the music around the world, and it is exciting to be announcing this agreement on the eve of our latest collaboration, the Love Never Dies album. I am grateful to my friends, and I really mean friends, at Universal for their loyalty and support over many years, and look forward to working with them in future, especially as we work together to explore the incredible possibilities that digital technologies will bring."

The renewed worldwide partnership comes on the eve of the debut of Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical. Polydor Records will release the cast recording in March, to coincide with the show’s opening in London’s West End. This will be followed by openings in New York in November 2010 and Australia in 2011, and worldwide release of the album.

Universal Music Publishing Group will represent the music from Love Never Dies, and the new deal also extends the worldwide (ex-UK/Eire) publishing agreement for the entire Really Useful Group catalogue.