NBC Promotes 'Smash' Via Columbia Records

Smash

NBC's new musical drama "Smash" isn't launching until early next year, but the show already has a record contract as it takes a page from the "Glee" playbook. Both shows now have deals with Columbia Records. 

Fox has aggressively turned "Glee" into a multiplatform brand, which also includes a reality-competition spinoff on Oxygen. NBC might settle for a fraction of its success.

The NBC deal with Columbia, a Sony music label, comes as series star Katherine McPhee, a former "American Idol" standout, has signed a separate solo deal with Columbia.

McPhee will be joined by "Will & Grace" star Debra Messing on the show, which revolves around the launching of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe. NBC will pair it with its new reality show "The Voice" on Mondays.

The Columbia deal gives the label global distribution rights to music from the "Smash" first season, with options for renewals for later seasons.

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Rob Stringer, chairman, Columbia/Epic Label Group, stated: "Music is at the heart of 'Smash,'" and with NBC, "we will develop innovative strategies to present this music."

The "Smash" soundtrack will include original compositions by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, "the Tony- and Grammy award-winning songwriters of Broadway blockbusters such as 'Hairspray' and 'Catch Me If You Can."

The Columbia deal was reached by NBCUniversal's consumer products group.

Separately, the winner of Fox's upcoming "The X Factor" will score a $5 million recording deal with a Sony label.

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