President at Rotana, Salem al Hindi, signed an agreement that includes the record company into the French authors, composers and music publishers societySociété des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique, Sacem, ensuring the latter will protect the former’s worldwide copyrights.

Rotana is holding copyrights for 7,000 works by about 700 artists, making them the world’s biggest Arab music publisher.

During 2009, 60 albums bearing the label were released, along with 100 music videos,Al Hindi said the numbers give evidence to how the global credit crunch didn’t affect the company’s annual target.

Warda, Elissa, Assi El Hellani, Haifa Wehbe, Asil abu Bakr, among others, were signed to the company,Rotana Café was inaugurated in Cairo, to be followed with versions in Kuwait, Emirates, Jordan and Morocco.

Layali Febrayer (February Nights Festivals) was sponsored this year by Rotana, in collaboration with Al Watan TV,More than 50 other concerts in Arab countries and beyond were organized by Rotana and given by Rotana artists.

Chairman Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud was at Hotel Four Seasons-Riyadh to launch a Poetry Division with 2 audio collections released in Eid and 8 others due soon.

A 2009 poetry festival in Riyadh was under the patronage of the new division.