MELBOURNE – Hal Leonard Australia announced that they have acquired a majority interest in Innovative Music Australia Pty Ltd, effective as of 1 September 2016. Innovative was founded by Steve Lincoln-Smith 27 years ago and has developed into a highly respected distributor of music technology products in the Australian market. Located in Notting Hill, a suburb of Melbourne, they have a team of six very talented staff who will join the Hal Leonard family. Philip Burn, Managing Director of Hal Leonard Australia, said, “As music publishers, we recognize that the synergy between music technology and content can only increase, and this strategic move is in line with the direction of our parent company in the USA with getting into the distribution of technology products. We look forward to being able to help our current accounts build their gear offerings as well as finding new accounts we may not have worked with before.”

Innovative Music distributes many well-respected music technology companies including Novation, RME, Audient, Studiologic, Etymotic, Mogami Cables, MXL, and many others. “Innovative will remain a stand-alone business, under the leadership of Steve Lincoln-Smith, who has entered into a long-term agreement to continue as Managing Director of the company” Burn added.

Steve commented, “Innovative Music was founded on the idea of bringing to the Australian market a range of complementary music technology products. We feel very positive about the shared vision between Innovative Music and Hal Leonard and about the myriad possibilities for blending technology and content. There are tremendous opportunities in the market and we are poised to capture them together.”