Finance

YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, has announced that YouTube paid music rightsholders over USD $6 billion in the 12 months to end of June 2022. That figure is significant for a number of reasons, not least that it’s a$2 billion increase from the $4 billion contribution to music rightsholders that YouTube said it paid out in the prior-year period (the 12 months to end of June 2021).

Source: YouTube says it paid the music industry over $6bn in the past year – with around $2bn coming from UGC

A total of 2,000 musicians, painters and writers in Ireland are set to receive a weekly basic income of €325 ($330) per week under a new scheme to be piloted by Ireland’s government. The artists were picked anonymously from over 9,000 applications and those that were chosen will receive the weekly grant over the course of the three year-scheme.

Source: 2,000 artists and creatives in Ireland to be paid basic income of $330 per week under new pilot scheme

Following the sale of AWAL and Kobalt Neighboring Rights to Sony Music for $430 million last year, Kobalt was left with two core businesses – Kobalt Music Publishing and collection society AMRA – as well as a decent pile of cash on its balance sheet. That cash pile was enhanced over the past two years by fees related to the sale of a pair of catalogs – for a total $1.4 billion – by Kobalt’s now-defunct investment management arm (Kobalt Capital).

Source: The Kobalt sale: 3 takeaways from the music industry’s biggest story of the moment

“To fuel its growth, HSF has repeatedly tapped investors for cash to make new acquisitions, but it has since burnt through its funds and is unable to raise more because its stock price has fallen,” is how the FT summarized the situation. “Pro forma royalty revenues from its catalogue have fallen for the past two years and the cost of servicing its $600mn of debt is rising. It has not bought a new song for more than a year.”

Source: Financial Times explores the growing pains of Hipgnosis – Music Ally

Kobalt has confirmed that private equity company Francisco Partners (FP) is acquiring a majority stake in its business. MBW understands that, should the deal clear regulatory/closing conditions, FP’s controlling stake in Kobalt will equate to around 90% of the music company. Meanwhile, two other new co-investors are to each acquire minority stakes in Kobalt at the same time: Matt Pincus’s MUSIC, plus Dundee Partners.

Source: Kobalt Music Group sold to US-based private equity firm Francisco Partners

The Bristol, UK-headquartered firm offers unlimited digital distribution for independent artists to multiple streaming platforms for a single annual fee – making it a rival to the likes of TuneCore and DistroKid. In addition (for higher-priced annual fees), 3tone offers artists premium services such as marketing, promotion, sync and playlist pitching.

Source: UK-based 3tone Music Group raises $50m from Carlton James Group

The pre-seed was led by Binance Labs and Moment Ventures. Reveel was part of Season 4 of Binance Labs’ Incubation Program, the company’s investment arm. The company aims to make collaboration easier by providing transparency and equity for creators through the development of tools that makes the administrative side of revenue sharing and royalty accounting as easy as possible.

Source: Web3 Platform Reveel Raises $1.3MM Pre-Seed Funding

BPI says that this A&R spend, which includes artist advances, creating new recordings, video costs and tour support, was 106.6% more in 2021 than the £173.3 million ($225m) spent in 2016. The trade body also noted in its press release that, “A&R, however, is a highly risky and speculative business and only a minority of artists signed to labels become commercially successful”.

Source: UK record labels spent $41m on A&R every month in 2021

CT Investments, which arrived on the scene earlier this year, debuted the KPOP and Korean Entertainment ETF on the NYSE Arca today. Moreover, CT is a wholly owned asset-management subsidiary of two-year-old Contents Technologies, which bills itself as a “next-generation content company that builds and invests in IPs as well as technology/finance/service-oriented businesses within the content value chain.”

Source: ‘KPOP and Korean Entertainment ETF’ Debuts Amid K-Pop Growth

BMG saw its half-year revenues grow 25% YoY to €371 million in the six months to end of June. The company says that this first half organic growth of 25% was the highest in BMG’s 14-year history. BMG reports that 60% of its revenues in the first half of 2022 were from publishing, with 40% from recordings.

Source: BMG revenues increased 25% to €371m in first half of 2022