SANTA MONICA, CA (March 10, 2016) - The legendary R.E.M., one of the all-time, best-selling bands throughout the world, has reached an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) to represent its amazing catalog of songs, it was announced today by Jody Gerson, Chairman and CEO, UMPG.

Formed in 1980 by Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry, R.E.M.’s craftsmanship and musical impact was pivotal in defining and popularizing the indie rock genre. With career sales of over 85 million albums, R.E.M. released 15 studio albums (nine of which went Top 5 on the Billboard 200), including Murmur, Lifes Rich Pageant, Document, Green, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster, and their final album, the critically acclaimed Collapse into Now.

“R.E.M. is one of a small number of benchmark artists who have changed the course of popular music during their renowned career and, over the past 30 years they have been the model for every artist that wants to organically develop their career with the ambition of someday reaching ‘best band in the world’ status. We are honored that R.E.M. has chosen us to take care of their generation-defining catalog,” said Gerson.

“As a band and an organization, we are excited to join forces with Universal Music Publishing for the next phase of R.E.M.’s legacy career. Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe’s body of work stands alongside any artist and the Universal machine is unparalleled in terms of what we look for in a global publisher,” said Bertis Downs, longtime manager of R.E.M.

Some of R.E.M.’s most popular songs include “Losing My Religion,” “Everybody Hurts,” “The One I Love,” “Its the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” “Man on the Moon,” “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?,” “Fall On Me,” “Orange Crush,” “Driver 8,” “Nightswimming,” “Leaving New York,” and “Supernatural Superserious,” to name a few.

R.E.M. has won three Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.