The worldwide consolidation of independent producers looks likely to continue in 2022 as the global streaming boom pushes up both demand and budgets for film and TV series. Around the world, independent television and film companies are linking up, or being bought out, as the streaming revolution transforms the business.
Source: Why Production Companies in 2022 Will Need to Get Big or Go Home
After months of negotiations, David Bowie’s estate has sold the singer’s formidable publishing catalog to Warner Chappell Music for a price upwards of $250 million, sources confirm to Variety. The catalog spans six decades and includes such songs as “Heroes,” “Changes,” “Space Oddity,” “Fame,” “Let’s Dance,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Golden Years,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “All the Young Dudes,” his 1981 collaboration with Queen “Under Pressure” and hundreds more.
Source: David Bowie’s Estate Sells His Publishing Catalog to Warner Chappell (EXCLUSIVE)
BMG and KKR have put their recently announced partnership to work, acquiring the “entire music interests” of long-running American rock band ZZ Top for a sum sources place at around $50 million. The agreement includes a buyout of the band’s publishing catalogue and their income from recorded royalties and performance royalties. Previously, BMG served as co-publisher and administrator of ZZ Top’s publishing catalog.
Source: ZZ Top Sells Catalog to BMG and KKR for Around $50 Million
Streaming services led by Netflix are helping to push total global content spend past $220 billion in 2021, up 14% year over year, according to Ampere Analysis. | Streaming services led by Netflix are helping to push total global content spend past $220 billion in 2021, up 14% year over year, according to Ampere Analysis.
Source: Streaming services help push content spending past $220B in 2021
If you’re confounded by the numerous stories floating around the web regarding the matter of musicians offering NFTs to fans, you’re not the only one. It turns out Brian Eno isn’t too thrilled about the new craze either. Speaking to The Crypto Syllabus, Eno has explained his belief that NFTs are merely a way for artists to become “little capitalist assholes”.
Source: Brian Eno weighs in on NFT craze: “Now artists can become capitalist a**holes as well”
Hipgnosis’s bi-annual reports to investors provide the best snapshots of the new business model in an industry short on publicly available details. Not quite a traditional music publisher, not a passive investor, Hipgnosis Songs Fund is a shell company incorporated in Guernsey and listed on the London Stock Exchange. To raise equity on the LSE, Hipgnosis became the first company to create a new asset class in music, the royalty fund.
Despite the popularity of young acts like Drake and Dua Lipa, older material dominates online. According to MRC Data, a tracking service that powers the Billboard charts, about 66 percent of all music consumption — of which streaming is by far the largest part — is for material that is older than 18 months, and that number has been growing rapidly.
Source: A $550 Million Springsteen Deal? It’s Glory Days for Catalog Sales.
Two months after launching a $500 million strategic alliance with Spirit Music Group owner Lyric Capital, investment firm Northleaf Capital Partners, via Crescendo Royalty Funding, is preparing to issue nearly $304 million in bonds backed by the catalogs of Tim McGraw, The Who, and more.
Source: Northleaf Capital Unveils $304M Bond Offering Backed by The Who, Tim McGraw catalogs
As catalog sales go, Springsteen’s reported deal tops the nearly $400 million that sources say Universal Music Publishing paid for Bob Dylan’s song catalog late last year, and dwarfs all other recent nine-figure deals. Yet one well-placed source tells Variety that the deal was actually closer to $600 million, although not all sources agree on that figure.
Source: Bruce Springsteen Is Boss With Music Catalog Sale at Half a Billion Dollars — or More?
Six-year-old BandLab announced the multimillion-dollar raise via a release on the website of Caldecott Music Group. BandLab’s parent company, BandLab Technologies, rebranded as Caldecott earlier this month (leaving BandLab Technologies in place as a tech division) and is also the owner of NME, Guitar.com, Uncut, and other news platforms.