The white-hot publishing market just got hotter, as Vine Alternative Investments announced Thursday that it has acquired the song catalog of multi-platinum producer, songwriter, artist and DJ Calvin Harris. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although one source said the price was “around” $100 million.
Source: Calvin Harris Sells Publishing Catalog to Vine Investments for ‘Around’ $100 Million
Round Hill’s investor site also reveals that Round Hill Music’s management team “has been responsible for over $1.4 billion of music copyright transactions across 128 catalog deals” down the years – including $650m spent on copyrights by its investors before Round Hill officially became Round Hill in 2012.
Source: Round Hill: Our $375m IPO will be good news for songwriters
Universal Music Group plans to have an initial public stock offering in 2022, parent company Vivendi announced Tuesday in its third quarter earnings release. The IPO will happen in 2022 because of positive trends in operations, the market potential and discussions between UMG and its partners, Vivendi CFO Hervé Philippe said during Tuesday’s earnings call.
Deals for music rights have never been more competitive, with new-school players like Hipgnosis Songs Fund and Round Hill Music building (and spending) considerable war chests to acquire catalogs. Warner Music Group, the world’s third biggest music rights company, is evidently determined to show it can play that game too.
Source: Warner Music Group raises $250m in debt to fund future acquisitions
The charity surveyed more than 1,300 musicians in the UK, and found that 96% have lost “the majority” of their income, while 55% aren’t earning anything at all from music at the moment. Only 19% expect their income to return to normal by April 2021, while 89% are worried about the next year of their career, and 76% are worried about whether they can even stay in the music industry longer-term.
Source: 55% of UK musicians are currently earning ‘nothing’ from music
L.A Reid has sold 100% of publishing interests and writer’s share of income in his music catalog, comprising 162 songs, to Hipgnosis Songs Fund. In addition, Reid is joining the Advisory Board of The Family (Music) Limited – the related company established by Merck Mercuriadis and Nile Rodgers to locate potential acquisition targets for Hipgnosis in the music industry.
Source: L.A Reid sells his catalog to Hipgnosis, joins Advisory Board of Merck Mercuriadis’ related company
New York-headquartered Downtown is currently privately owned. In the past 18 months, the rapid expansion of Downtown Music Holdings – led by CEO Justin Kalifowitz – has included its acquisition of indie artist distributor CD Baby (and parent, AVL) in a $200m-plus deal. And at the top of this year, Downtown acquired recorded music digital services company FUGA for upwards of $40m.
Source: Downtown ‘exploring strategic options’ with Raine Group – including possible sale
K-Pop stars BTS – whose label Big Hit Entertainment is headed for a $4 billion-plus IPO this month – drew nearly 1 million viewers to their pay-per-concert over the weekend, likely banking at least $35 million in the process. The two-day, live streamed ‘MAP OF THE SOUL ON:E’ event attracted 993,000 viewers from 191 regions, according to Big Hit.
Los Angeles-based ticketed livestreaming startup Moment House has launched with $1.5 million seed funding. The seed round was led by Forerunner Ventures and the company has also secured angel investments from Scooter Braun, Troy Carter, Palm Tree Crew Investments (Kygo and Myles Shear), Jess Lee, a partner at Sequoia Capital, Jared Leto, Patreon CEO Jack Conte and more.
Source: Scooter Braun & Troy Carter backed livestream startup Moment House launches with $1.5m funding
According to a new report from Digital TV Research, global pay TV revenues will fall to $152 billion by 2025, down from a peak $202 billion in 2016. The firm said the total will be lower than 2010’s $175 billion despite the number of pay TV subscribers rising by 345 million between 2010 and 2025. The top five countries will account for 54% of global pay TV revenues by 2025, down from 62% in 2019.
Source: U.S. pay TV revenue will plummet to $56B by 2025: analyst