Finance

Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF), the UK-listed entity that owns stakes in over 65,000 songs, saw double-digit growth in its latest fiscal year – in what the firm calls its strongest FY performance since its IPO five years ago. HSF today (July 13) published its financial figures for FY 2023 (to end of March 2023), revealing that its like-for-like net revenues grew 10.9% YoY in the period.

Source: Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s like-for-like net revenues rose 10.9% in FY 2023, streaming revenues up 14.8% last year

The hope for HSF’s management and shareholders in recent months was that the continued strong growth in music’s paid streaming revenues would combine with a downward trend in interest rates to boost HSF’s share price. Now, some of HSF’s biggest shareholders are hatching a plan to pump up the company’s public valuation via tactical methods, including a potential disposal of some assets in the marketplace.

Source: Hipgnosis Songs Fund may soon sell some copyrights. Why – and who might be the buyer?

Sound.xyz, a platform where artists set the prices for their music NFT releases, has raised a $20 million round led by existing investor Andreessen Horowitz’s A16z Crypto fund, with participation from venture firms Palm Tree Crew, A Capital, Sound Ventures, Collab + Currency and Scalar Capital. Three artists also participated in the round: rapper Snoop Dogg, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder and hip-hop producer Tay Keith.

Source: Music NFT Platform Sound.xyz Raises $20M from Andreessen Horowitz, Snoop Dogg & Others

LA-based distribution and payment company Stem said it will offer more advances to artists who use their catalogs for backing and those leaving major labels. Launched in 2015, Stem was created with an aim to give artists greater transparency into music industry finances and alternative sources of funding to support artists who want to run their own businesses.

Source: Stem Raises $250 Million for Artist Advances

The first half of 2023 has been a colossal disappointment for media executives who wanted this year to be a rebound from a terrible 2022, when a slowdown in streaming subscribers cut valuations for Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global roughly in half. Instead, investors have once again become excited by Netflix’s future prospects as it’s cracked down on password sharing, potentially leading to tens of millions of new signups.

Source: Legacy media companies enter dark times as failures mount and Netflix rises again

On Wednesday (June 28), Primary Wave revealed that it has struck what it calls a ‘multi-million-dollar’ deal with George Brown, the legendary songwriter, drummer, producer and Founding Member of Kool & The Gang. Primary Wave says it has acquired a stake in his music publishing catalog, writer’s share, and writer’s share of public performance.

Source: Kool & The Gang’s George Brown strikes ‘multi-million-dollar’ catalog deal with Primary Wave

There’s a lot of buzz around classic movie scores right now – as rumors swirl that Warner Bros Discovery is close to agreeing a $500m-ish deal to sell around 50% of its treasured music catalog. Sony is reported to be the front-runner to buy. But that’s not the only major music deal being thrashed out in Tinseltown. Multimedia Music, the UK-headquartered company founded by industry veterans Phil Hope and James Gibb just announced its latest major acquisition.

Source: Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners sells 50% stake in music library to $200m-backed Multimedia Music

Warner Music Group and Polygon Labs, a growth and development team in support of the Polygon network, have launched what they call a “groundbreaking” music accelerator program. The companies say that the accelerator aims to power “the next generation of innovation at the intersection of Web3 and music” by supporting developers launching music-related projects and dApps on the Polygon network.

Source: Warner to fund Web3 music projects via new accelerator in partnership with Polygon Labs

The new funding round was led by Pophouse Entertainment and also brought along music manager Marc Jordan through his investment fund Blue Amber Investments, multi-platinum artist LP, Supercell co-founder Mikko Kodisoja, and Danish VC firm Blackwood Ventures. Sweden-based Snafu uses an AI A&R tool dubbed ‘EMMA’ which it says has been trained to “find undervalued artists based on a wide range of metrics”.

Source: Snafu launches AI-powered ‘Snafu Song Fund’ financing for indie artists backed by $7m round led by Pophouse Entertainment

The newly launched Viberate for Artists offers music distribution to all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tencent Music. Viberate for Artists also provides booking and promotion tools, playlist and festival pitching a free one-sheet tool, and professional artist analytics covering streaming and social media channels.

Source: Viberate launches Independent Artist platform offering distribution and advances up to $1m