From Steve Cooper’s last Warner interview to Concord’s $1.8bn bond offering… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

Welcome to Global Music Businessour weekly roundup – where we make sure you’ve captured our five biggest headlines over the past seven days. MBW rounding is supported by Centtriphelping more than 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring expenses.

“[In] live music space, prices vary depending on who you’re meeting and what your experience is. I think the recorded music space needs to be more like that. Since we have 99 cents of downloads, music tends to be priced the same. And we all know that all music is not the same.”

It’s one of many insightful observations about the modern music business from Steve CooperOutgoing CEO of Warner Music Corporationgave in his last public interview as WMG boss this week.

Cooper will hand over the acting CEO at the ‘third largest company’ to Robert Kyncl later this year (though Cooper will stay with Warner through January 2023 to ensure a smooth transition. )

Cooper also told MBW in his exclusive ‘escape’ interview: “What I’ve learned is this: you have to stay open-minded and pragmatic. No one knows for sure where things will go. So don’t be seduced by your version of yourself and your vision of the future, or you risk losing sight of the ground beneath your feet.”

Other big MBW stories this week include the latest headlines about music’s ongoing flirtation with the bond market: harmony confirmed that it has successfully valued $1.8 billion in secured premium notes based on “a substantial proportion” of its music copyright portfolio.

There is also a sequence of significant numbers from the UK listed Hipgnosis Song Foundation, upon publication of H1 results (for the six months to the end of September 2022). The most importance of those numbers? The company’s total revenue increased 7.5% year-on-year in the period, to $91.7 million.

MBW has also reported on important news in the past few days regarding things like TuneCore and DeadMau5.

Read on for our biggest stories of the past week…

1) CONCORD PRICE 1.8 BILLION BOND OFFER OVER 1M MUSIC COPYRIGHT GUARANTEED

Late last month, Concord reportedly began a process to become the latest major music company to launch a bond offering through royalties securitized from copyright.

Financial giant Apollo Global Management sold a $1.65 billion bond backed by music rights from Concord’s portfolio, marking the company’s first securitization, according to a Bloomberg report. music company.

On Thursday (December 8), Concord confirmed that it has successfully valued $1.8 billion in premium banknotes backed by what it says is a “substantial portion” of its portfolio of copies. recordings and songs…

2) HIPGNOSIS SONG SONG REVENUE UP 7.5% YoY, CONVERED REVENUE UP 15.8% YYDY, IN THE LAST Half Year

There has been a lot of attention to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) this year. The UK-listed fund, once the most active music rights buyout, has halted portfolio purchases for the past 12 months and failed to raise any new equity for the rights repurchase. during this period.

Thus, HSF’s financial results give us a useful indication of the organic strength of the company’s portfolio, which includes earnings/rights streams in 65,413 tracks, according to company documents.

Today (December 8,), HSF announced half-year and six-month business results until the end of September 2022 with many positive signals for both HSF’s investors and the music copyright business in general. ….

3) TUNEORE HAS PAYED US$3 BILLION TO ARTISTS SOLVED TO YOURSELF

BelieveMusic distribution service owned by TuneCore on Thursday (December 8) announced that it has reached a new milestone, having paid $3 billion in royalties to spontaneous artists. operating since the company was founded in 2006.

TuneCore says that the $3 billion payout figure represents the cumulative total income from all TuneCore music creators — “including artists, hobbyists, and fledgling music creators.” young to working professionals and even accomplished artists.”

The company also reported on Thursday that more than 8,000 TuneCore artists have earned more than $10,000 through its platform to date, with “thousands of artists earning between $50,000 and $100,000 and many carrying go home” more than 1 million dollars…

4) STEVE COOPER DISCHARGEMENT INTERVIEW: ‘ALL SUCCESSFUL COMPANY SUCCESSFUL TO FIND THEY BENEFITS FROM NEW FACES.’

Over the past decade, Warner Music Group’s annual revenue has more than doubled, up from 2.87 billion USD in the financial year 2011 to 5.92 billion USD in fiscal year 2022.

Meanwhile, WMG’s market value has increased more than 5 times under Steve Cooper as CEO – from 3.3 billion USD 2011 to 17.1 billion USD today (even in light of the harsh macroeconomic environment for stock prices).

Here, in Cooper’s last public interview as WMG CEO, MBW asked him about his biggest achievements in music, the most terrifying issues he faced. must overcome – and will the next 10 years of the music business have any chance of being as bright as the previous decade…

5) RICHIE HAWTIN PIXELYNX’s DEADMAU5 AND METAVERSE FOUNDATION BUYED BY ANIMOCA BRANDS

Animoca Brands, the parent company of the game metaverse The Sandbox, has doubled its investment in the metaverse space after buying a majority stake in Pixelynx, a musical metaverse gaming platform.

This investment follows recent reports that Animoca is launching a $2 billion metaverse fund for developers.

It also follows Animoca’s previous investment in Pixelynx exactly a year ago when it led the latter company’s $4.5 million seed round with participation from Solana Ventures, Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund, Hyperedge Capital, Republic Realm and Sfermion…

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