Finance

Irving Azoff wants to preserve artists’ legacy in the age of music streaming—and his own. His latest venture, Iconic Artists Group, joins a crowded market for music investment, and has signed deals for the songwriting and recording catalogs of the Beach Boys, David Crosby and Linda Ronstadt.

Source: How a Longtime Music Executive Is Trying to Protect Artists’ Legacies

The news is further proof of the positive investor sentiment surrounding music rights today, and follows Hipgnosis Songs Fund also exceeding its minimum target for a share issue earlier this month. (Hipgnosis was aiming for $210 million, but due to an oversubscribed round, ended up with $215 million.)

Source: In more good news for music’s value, Round Hill raises $86.5m in share issue – far exceeding target

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies are everywhere and they’re spending huge sums, from long-time Geffen Records President Neil Jacobson’s $200m IPO in New York, to Reservoir’s NASDAQ plans via SPAC merger, to Bill Ackman’s financial vehicle buying 10% of Universal Music Group. Now a new SPAC, launching in Europe, with over $300m at its disposal, could be another game-changer for the music industry.

Source: A new SPAC has $325m to spend – and it’s got its eye on the music industry

The music industry is weighted against artists, with even successful pop stars seeing “pitiful returns” from streaming, a committee of MPs has said. They are calling for a “complete reset” of the market, with musicians given a “fair share” of the £736.5 million that UK record labels earn from streaming. In a report, they said royalties should be split 50/50, instead of the current rate, where artists receive about 16%.

Source: MPs call for complete reset of music streaming to ensure fair pay for artists

One of the streaming platforms that pays out the highest amount of artist royalties for every song played isn’t Spotify, Apple Music, or the supposedly artist-friendly Tidal—it’s Peloton. That is to say, not a streaming service, but the luxurious, glitzy fitness company, whose recent megapopularity has been matched only by its controversy.

Source: How the Hell Is Peloton the Best-Paying Music Streaming Service?

On Monday, Chinese anti-trust regulators were reported to have penalized U.S.-listed Tencent Music Entertainment for its build-up of a dominant position in online music. Among the penalties are fines for the company’s failure to properly report the acquisition of two smaller operations in 2016, and a commitment to end exclusive deals with music labels.

Source: Chinese Regulators May Require Tencent Music to End Exclusive Deals (Report)

According to Vivendi’s annual financial report, UMG spent some €2.54 billion ($2.87 billion) on catalog acquisitions and artist advances last year. That figure was up 71% on the €1.48 billion UMG spent on the category in 2019. UMG then recouped €1.02 billion from those advances within the 2020 calendar year, resulting in that €1.52 billion ($1.71 billion) net expenditure.

Source: Actually… Universal Music Group spent nearly $3 BILLION on catalog acquisitions and artist advances last year

US-based investment firm Shamrock Capital is best known in music for buying blockbuster entertainment copyrights (including Taylor Swift’s first six albums, which it acquired for around $300 million in November). Now, it’s offering music rights-owners an alternative to selling up.

Source: Shamrock just raised $196m to loan music and entertainment rights-holders money

That figure is slightly higher than the £150 million ($210m) Hipgnosis targeted with its announcement of the share placing in June. Why? Because the raise was over-subscribed, thanks to what Hipgnosis says was “significant demand from existing and new investors”. The over-subscribed offer of new shares significantly boost warchest of acquisitive UK-listed firm.

Source: Hipgnosis Songs Fund raises $215m with new share placing – as investor demand exceeds target

The issues surrounding MDRCs — minimum delivery release commitments — rose to the broader industry’s attention over the past year, due largely to songwriters’ advocacy groups beating the drum about them. But although these clauses are not included in new deals as often as they once were, extracting them from long-standing deals will take time.

Source: MDRCs: The ‘Archaic’ Contract Clause That’s Harmed Many Songwriters