Finance

It’s worth repeating: the song is the currency of our business. Yet the songwriter — who delivers the most important component to the success of a record company, publisher, promoter, manager, agent, music venue, radio station, broadcaster et al – is the lowest paid person in the economic equation. An equation that has made the modern music industry a juggernaut.

Source: Merck Mercuriadis: ‘None of us should be able to sleep in good conscience at night until the true value of the songwriters’ contributions to this business are recognized.’

Frontline investment is actually getting more aggressive than it ever did before, and yet if you look at some industry numbers, catalog is heading towards 70% market share on streams. It raises the question: why the hell is so much money being applied to that remaining 30% [i.e. frontline A&R]?

Source: Hartwig Masuch thinks the music industry is putting too much of its money in the wrong places.

French conglomerate Vivendi set an €18.50 ($21.69 at the present exchange rate) reference price for Universal Music Group stock, and shares hiked as much as 43 percent past the figure out of the gate, to a high of €26.45 ($31) apiece. And while trading activity promptly cooled down UMG stock remained well above the aforementioned reference price, finishing the day at €25.10 ($29.42) per share, just beneath the €25.25 ($29.61) opening price.

Source: Universal Music Group Stock Surges On First Day of Public Trading

Universal Music Group, the business behind singers such as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, is valued at around 33.5 billion euros ($39.30 billion) ahead of the record label’s stock market debut in Amsterdam on Tuesday. France’s Vivendi is spinning off Universal and on Monday set a reference price for the listing at 18.5 euros per share, according to a statement issued by Euronext.

Source: Universal Music valued around $39 billion ahead of stock market debut

RCRDSHP’s seed round was supported by NFT collectors Metakovan and Twobadour (via PortKey Technologies), and Dapper Labs. Metakovan and Twobadour bought the highest priced NFT in history back in March, a $69 million digital art piece created by Beeple and auctioned at Christies.

Source: Dance music NFT platform RCRDSHP closes multi-million dollar seed round, backed by the buyers of $69m Beeple digital art piece

The cryptocurrency-driven music service Audius aims to offer a hybrid of streaming giant Spotify and sharing platform Soundcloud, and its star has risen in recent months via integration with TikTok and new NFT features. Now popular musicians including Katy Perry, Nas, and others have officially come onboard via a new investment round.

Source: Katy Perry, Nas, Jason Derulo Invest in Crypto Music Platform Audius – Decrypt

OpenSea, the biggest NFT trading marketplace, said today that one of its employees used internal information to buy NFTs that were about to be featured on its homepage — and likely spike in value. Accusations were made against OpenSea’s head of product, Nate Chastain, last night after a community member publicized suspicious transactions from his wallet.

Source: OpenSea product chief accused of flipping NFTs using insider information

Genius Media, the widely used lyrics-database company formerly known as Rap Genius, has been acquired by app and internet media holding company MediaLab for $80 million. With the acquisition, MediaLab is making layoffs at Genius, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the sale. Genius and MediaLab would not confirm how many employees are being pink-slipped.

Source: Genius Acquired for $80 Million by MediaLab, Which Is Making Layoffs at Music Lyrics Company

This week, it was reported that Mayer’s company is in talks to acquire Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Inc, marking its second major buy, and the exec today teased that the deals won’t end there. “We’re going to bring in other category-defining businesses and brands that will fill out a whole spectrum of audiences,” he commented, adding that he couldn’t spill the beans on any specific acquisitions but that they “are considering some”.

Source: Kevin Mayer Teases Further Acquisitions From Blackstone-Backed Media Firm & Talks Potential DAZN Premier League UK Rights Deal – RTS Convention

Los Angeles-headquartered GDMG has teamed with MEP Capital to acquire Sound Royalties, the music financing platform that pays out advances to artists and rights-holders based on predicted future royalty income. Peterson didn’t disclose the price of the deal but confirmed it was a “high eight-figure purchase” – i.e. tens of millions of dollars – backed by funding from MEP.

Source: Cinq Music parent GoDigital acquires music finance company Sound Royalties in ‘high eight-figure’ deal