From Justin Timberlake’s catalog sale to Sony’s unrecouped balance program expansion: It’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up
Welcome to Worldwide music businessweekly recap – where we’re sure you’ve caught the top five stories that will make our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is powered by Centtriphelping more than 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring expenses.
This week has brought news of the music industry’s latest superstar catalog deal.
Hipgnosis Song Management announced that it has acquired Justin Timberlake’s song catalog, on behalf of the Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital ICAV – a separate entity listed in the UK Older brother. Hipgnosis Song Foundation.
Hipgnosis said it acquired “100% of all copyright, title, and financial interest in Timberlake in the Writers and Publishers Public Performance Share earnings and portfolio of works. music written by Justin Timberlake”.
Also included in the sale to Hipgnosis are worldwide management rights to the compositions, subject to the Remaining Term of Popular music Governance of the Publishing Corporation, which will expire in 2025…
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but citing sources, The Wall Street Journal report that it was valued ‘just over $100 million’.
In another development this week, Matt Pincus’ SONGS, an investment firm focused on the music business, raised $200 million in “initial” capital, officially relaunching as a new venture capital. way is a partnership between Pincus and Liontree, along with two new investors – JS Capital Management and Schusterman Family Investments.
Headquartered in New York, MUSIC says it will seek long-term positions in companies operating across three areas of the music business: (i) technology; (ii) record labels and music publishers; and (iii) companies “dedicated to Web3 innovation”.
Meanwhile, Sony Music Group announced the expansion of its landmark Legacy Unsupported Balance Program on a rotating basis.
The program will now be extended to globally qualified uninvited artists and musicians who have accompanied Music by Sony for more than 20 years, and have not received an advance in more than two decades.
The move was revealed by the President of Sony Music Group, Rob Stringerin a presentation with investors at Sony The Group’s 2022 business summary report on Thursday morning (May 26).
In addition, Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music both have added more paid music users Spotify in Q1, while music creative platform Splice appointed Kakul Srivastava as its new CEO.
Here’s what happened this week…
1) Justin Timberlake Sells Song Catalog to Hipgnosis and Its $1 Billion Backed Blackstone Foundation
Hipgnosis Song Management has – using cash from a private fund backed by Blackstone – acquired the track catalog of superstar artist and songwriter Justin Timberlake.
Hipgnosis said it acquired “100% of all copyright, title, and financial interest in Timberlake in the Writers and Publishers Public Performance Share earnings and portfolio of works. music written by Justin Timberlake”.
Also included in the sale to Hipgnosis are worldwide management rights to the compositions, subject to the Remaining Term of Management by Universal Music Publishing Group, which expires in 2025…
New York-based Matt Pincus is a highly respected businessman in the music business: after all, he founded SONGS Music Publishing, a company that not only signed The Weeknd, Diplo, and Lorde – but also sell to Kobalt The capital is about 160 million dollars in 2017.
After leaving SONGS, Pincus quietly founded an investment firm focused on the music business, in partnership with Liontree.
Since 2019, that joint venture – MUSIC – has invested in companies such as music production platform Splice, music financial services company HIFI, ticketing platform DICE, and others. (Pincus is currently a board member of Splice and HIFI.)
Yesterday (May 26), Pincus announced that he is taking MUSIC to the next level…
3) SONY MUSIC TO EXPAND THE UNREDUCED EQUALITY PROGRAM TO MULTIPLE ARTISTS AND SONGS
Last June, Sony Music Group made the landmark announcement that it would no longer apply its current unsupported balance to the earnings of eligible artists contracted before 2000, and who have not received the advance since then.
The move came through an initiative called “Artists Forward,” which, according to a statement from the record company at the time, is focused on “prioritizing transparency with creators in all aspects of life.” aspects of their development”.
The policy restriction from that initiative, the Legacy Unsupported Equalization Program, was extended to musicians in July, with Sony Music Publishing (SMP) revealed that it will also ignore unsupported balances for qualified musicians.
Now, Sony Music Group is expanding its unsupported equalizer program to more artists and musicians…
4) KAKUL SRIVASTAVA REGISTERED NEW SPLICE CEO, AS A MARTOCCI SWITCHER TO A NEW ROLE
Music creation platform Splice has hired Kakul Srivastava as its new CEO.
Joining the company from Adobe, Srivastava has served on Splice’s Board of Directors since 2021.
Splice’s appointment of a new CEO means that Splice founder, and current CEO Steve Martocci, will move into the joint roles of Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer…
5) TENCENT MUSIC AND NETEASE CLOUD MUSIC BOTH BEEN MORE PAYING MUSIC USERS SPOTIFY IN Q1
Some interesting news outside of China: Both the region’s largest music streaming service providers, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) and NetEase Cloud Music (NCM) have both seen significant growth. in the number of paying music streaming users in the first three months of 2022.
It’s a ‘paying online music user’ not a ‘subscriber’ because this specifically written metric – especially relevant to TME – is adopted by both companies in their finances…
MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is powered by Centtrip, helping more than 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their earnings and reduce their touring costs.Worldwide music business
