Music rights and print publishing company of the members and heirs of deceased members of Grateful Dead. Administered by Universal Music Publishing Group since September, 2014. Overseen by Janet Soto-Knudsen and has Robert Hunter as CEO. It has been associated with both BMI and ASCAP in the past.
May appear as:
Ice Nine Pub. Co.
Ice Nine Publishing Company
Please consider also:
Ice Nine (3)Ice Nine MusicIce Nine Music Pub.Ice Nine PublishingIce Nine Publishing Company, Inc.
History:
Robert Hunter, chief lyricist of Grateful Dead, chose the name based on Ice-9, a new form of water, which once released from its vial would crystallize all forms of water on the planet to permanent ice from Kurt Vonnegut's novel, 'Cat's Cradle'.
Ice Nine's logo is the I Ching hexagram for 'Gathering Together' changing to 'Holding Together'.
Rock Scully was instrumental in forming Ice Nine as a partnership of Grateful Dead's writers in 1967. The legendary San Francisco music lawyer of the time, Brian Rohan set it up. Ice Nine was registered as a corporation by the Dead’s long time attorney, Hal Kant in 1970.
As an Independent company Ice Nine handled North American music rights and the Dead's newsletter. Warner Bros. Music Co. administered the foreign collections and print publishing. CEO and majority shareholder, Robert Hunter, always oversaw Ice Nine and still has veto powers over Universal pertaining to rights usage. For most of its independent life, day-to-day management and licensing administration was the domain of Alan Trist, from 1970 until 2014 with a brief hiatus in the early - mid 90s. Annette Flowers, Bonnie Parker, Eileen Law, Nancy Mallonee and Janet Soto-Knudsen took care of the clerical, bookkeeping and financial administration functions at various times.