Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.
The biggest story in the global music rights industry this year will be, if all goes well, Universal Music Group‘s entry onto the public market in Amsterdam.
UMG looks likely to be beaten to the stock exchange in Europe, however, by Believe – the indie artist and label services company headquartered in Paris.
As MBW revealed on Monday (May 10), Believe has officially pulled the trigger on an IPO process. It’s aiming to float on the Paris Euronext, raising €500 million (around $608 million) in the process.
This week also brought news of two high-profile copyright acquisition deals, with Hipgnosis Songs Fund buying a catalog of songs from Grammy Award-winning producer, mixer and engineer Andy Wallace, and New York-based music and entertainment investment firm Influence Media Partners buying copyrights from the catalog of Grammy-nominated songwriter Julia Michaels.
Also, during the past five days we heard that Darcus Beese is about to launch a joint venture label with a major record company, and that Iain Watt, the respected British artist manager, is set to leave YMU Group three years after it acquired his own company.
Paris-headquartered Believe has taken the first official step to float in its home nation.
Like Universal Music Group, Believe has chosen Europe for its arrival on the stock exchange: the French company has just had its registration document to float on the Paris Euronext approved by the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF).
As part of the contemplated IPO, Believe – a label and artist services company and the owner of TuneCore – intends to raise approximately €500 million ($608 million) to finance its growth strategy.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund has acquired a catalog of 17,242 songs from Grammy Award-winning producer, mixer and engineer, Andy Wallace, including 100% of his Producer, Mixer and Performance royalties.
Hipgnosis hasn’t disclosed what it paid for Wallace’s songs, but in a note to investors obtained by MBW, the company revealed the annual revenue of the catalog in each of the previous three years.
The filing also reveals that in 2020, 75% of revenue from Wallace’s catalog was generated from streaming, while 9% came from performance royalties. The catalog includes 78 No.1s and 339 Top 10s.
New York-based music and entertainment investment firm Influence Media Partners has acquired a portfolio of copyrights from the catalog of Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels.
This acquisition follows last month’s news of the company’s deal to buy copyrights from the catalog of Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum songwriter Ali Tamposi.
Influence Media Partners launched a $100 million fund in March to invest in what it described as “award-winning catalogs of some of music’s most influential female music creators”.
Darcus Beese is about to launch a joint venture label outside of Universal Music Group, MBW hears.
The British A&R specialist exited his role as President of Island Records in New York earlier this year, and has now relocated to hometown of London.
According to sources speaking to MBW at the BRIT Awards this week, Beese has struck a deal with a major record company to launch a UK-based JV label – and it’s not UMG.
Iain Watt, the respected British artist manager, is set to leave YMU Group three years after it acquired his own company.
Well-placed sources tell MBW that Watt has declined to renew his contract with YMU, with his current deal officially expiring later this year.
Watt is Managing Director of YMU Music in the UK, working with artists/writers including Clean Bandit, MNEK, Years & Years and James Arthur, in addition to producer Mark Ralph (Jess Glynne, Years & Years, Jax Jones).
