Pam Beall and Susan Nipp, the creators of the Wee Sing line of children's books, music and videos, recently purchased the rights to Wee Sing's home video titles from MCA/Universal. Penguin Young Readers Group will continue to publish the Wee Sing books and CDs.
Beall and Nipp became frustrated with their video distribution arrangement after receiving a steady stream of complaints that consumers were not able to find Wee Sing videos in various retail outlets. With assistance from Penguin, the duo negotiated a deal to start a new company to distribute and sell the Wee Sing titles themselves. Wee Sing Productions (www.weesing.com) relaunches the first four one-hour titles on DVD next month, with another five titles to follow later in 2004.
Beall and Nipp, both music educators, launched Wee Sing as a self-published venture in the late '70s to provide wholesome entertainment and educational opportunities via their favorite childhood songs. By 1980, Wee Sing was acquired by Price Stern Sloan (now a division of Penguin) and in 1981 began producing audiocassettes to accompany its books. The videos first debuted in 1985.
