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.
Will Jack Dorsey and Square be able to transform TIDAL into an industry-leading streaming service complete with a suite of premier financial tools for artists?
That’s the vision… though Jay-Z could be forgiven for not caring too much either way.
Mr Carter has just completed the sale of 80% of TIDAL to Square in a deal now confirmed to be worth $302 million – around six times the price he originally paid for the platform back in 2015.
Jay-Z wasn’t the only one chucking around impressive financial figures this week.
Merck Mercuriadis‘ Hipgnosis acquired a catalog from songwriter/producer Andrew Watt for a price MBW estimates was in the eight figures, and upwards of $45 million. (Rumors suggest Mercuriadis has also closed the purchase of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song catalog for around $150m – but no confirmation has been forthcoming on that one so far.)
Elsewhere, Primary Wave announced a multi-million dollar acquisition of its own, picking up the publishing catalog of songwriters and producers Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers – the duo who discovered Rihanna, and co-wrote hits like Pon De Replay.
Warner Music Group posted some impressive fiscal results for the first three months of the year, while Live Nation – still wearing the troubles of pandemic lockdown – released its own Q1 numbers, complete with some optimism for the months ahead…
TIDAL is now majority-owned by Jack Dorsey’s Square, after a deal was reportedly finalized between Dorsey and Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter on Friday (April 30).
After TMZ reported a $350 million pricetag for the deal, a Square spokesperson later confirmed to MBW the final aggregate consideration was actually $302 million.
Considering that’s for 80% of TIDAL, it gives the music streaming company a total valuation of approximately $377.5 million….
Hipgnosis Songs Fund has acquired 105 songs from Andrew Watt – including both the writer and publisher’s share of the compositions.
These songs include Watt’s stake in huge hits such as Señorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, Havana by Camila Cabello (feat Young Thug), and Let Me Love You by DJ Snake (feat Justin Bieber).
MBW estimates that Hipgnosis paid upwards of $45 million for Watt’s catalog…
Primary Wave Music Publishing has bought the publishing catalog of songwriters and producers Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers, who discovered Rihanna.
In what Primary Wave describes as a “multi million dollar deal”, the acquisition will also see the publisher obtain a share in the duo’s master royalty income stream across Rihanna’s first seven albums…
In the full year of 2020 Live Nation’s revenues fell 84% as its concerts business’s annual revenues tumbled by nearly $9 billion due to the pandemic.
But after a gloomy year for the live music industry, the company now says that it is now “seeing the effects of significant pent-up demand” – as successful vaccination programs in the UK and US in particular start to translate into the easing of Covid restrictions and the return of live music.
According to Live Nation’s newly-published financial results for the three months to end of March, it posted $290 million in Q1 2021, a figure that was down by 79% year-on-year….
