Kobalt is going to continue to buy heritage copyrights amid the current music catalog gold-rush, it’s been revealed. Only this time, it’s not using outside-investor money… it’s using its own, including a hunk of debt. According to Bloomberg, Kobalt Music Group has successfully raised $550 million in debt financing from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and HPS Investment Partners.
Source: Kobalt just raised $550 million in debt to buy music catalog rights
Downtown Music Holdings has established a new multi-million dollar fund to support independent artists and entrepreneurial business owners. The fund will be supported by a new credit facility with Bank of America, and will see Downtown invest over $200 million.
Source: Downtown launches $200m fund to invest in independent artists and entrepreneurs
As any studio or streamer knows, spending guarantees nothing. The real trick is spending on what people want to watch while producing the volume necessary to keep them hooked. That’s a constant and evolving balancing act in its own right, but the more money means more attempts for success.
Source: From Disney to Peacock: Here’s What the Top 7 Streamers Will Spend on Content in 2022
Hipgnosis Song Management has announced the acquisition of a career-spanning catalog created by legendary Canadian artist and composer Leonard Cohen. The acquisition marks a landmark deal for the private, Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital ICAV fund, a separate entity to the UK-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
Source: Hipgnosis buys Leonard Cohen catalog via Blackstone-backed fund
Kobalt today reported that its gross collections grew by 15% to $548 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021. The company also reported its first-ever year of profitability with $48.5 million EBITDA. The company also said it expects to approach $625 million in gross collections and near $65 million in EBITDA profit for the next fiscal year ending June 30, 2022.
Source: Kobalt Reports First Year of Profitability, With 15% Growth in Collections
LifeScore, an AI-powered music platform, has raised about $14.5 million from investors including Warner Music Group. LifeScore intends to use the almost $14.5 million tranche “to accelerate its traction in Europe, the U.S. and Asia by strengthening its technical, audio and operations teams, expanding its customer base, and further investing in its proprietary adaptive music technology,” officials disclosed.
Source: AI Music Service LifeScore Raises $14.5MM In WMG-Backed Round
According to a new investor presentation given by UMG’s EVP/CFO Boyd Muir – that Universal does not consider participation in the catalog buyout gold-rush as “required” to satisfy its core future business objectives. According to that investor presentation handed to shareholders today (March 3), Universal spent €388 million (USD $459m) on catalog rights last year.
Pianity allows artists to sell their tracks as limited editions as a new way to monetize their music. It’s among one of the first NFT platforms launched in 2021 and has sold 11,000 NFTs with 20,000 users on the platform. Artists have made over $1.9mm from NFT sales to date. The seed funding round was led by Digital Renaissance Foundation, Big Brain Holdings, and Longhash Ventures.
Source: Music-Focused NFT Marketplace Pianity Secures $6.5M in Seed Funding
Epic Games, maker of hit video game Fortnite and Unreal Engine has acquired online music store and direct-to-fan platform Bandcamp. In a statement published by Epic, the company says that Bandcamp will play an “important role” in its “vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and more”.
Today, Netflix announced that it would be acquiring Finland’s Next Games, a developer of mobile games, for a total value of €65 million ($72 million). Next Games is listed on the public markets in Helsinki, and the deal is being done as an all-cash share purchase at €2.10 in case per share. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2022.