Finance

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.

Source: BandLab Completes $53M Series B at $303M Valuation

Spotify continues to beef up its audio product arsenal. Today, it announced the acquisition of Whooshkaa, a nearly six-year-old Australian company focused on helping radio broadcasters monetize, edit, and distribute their shows as podcasts. Radio networks will be able to prepare shows for publishing by capturing live broadcasts and using the Whooshkaa tech to edit and remove ads to make room for podcast-only spots.

Source: Spotify’s latest acquisition is about making money off radio shows turned into podcasts

A buzzy new music startup called Sound.xyz has raised a $5 million seed round, with contributions from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Variant Fund, Li Jin’s Atelier Ventures, a handful of crypto angels and artists like Holly Herndon, 21 Savage and DJ Drama. Sound’s pitch has to do with helping musicians make a living via crypto – specifically, a set of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) tied to new releases.

Source: NFT Music Startup Sound.xyz Raises $5M From a16z, 21 Savage

There was a time when the biggest companies in digital media seemed to be on the verge of selling for billions of dollars. But, those huge values have so far proved largely theoretical. With the exception of German media conglomerate Axel Springer’s decision to pay about $1 billion this past summer to buy Politico, few buyers were willing to actually pony up the money to buy the hottest brands in digital media.

Source: Why publishers like Vox Media are merging with their biggest rivals

Primary Wave Music, a New York company that specializes in marketing estates and song catalogs, is buying the assets of the Brown estate, including music rights, real estate and the control over Brown’s name and likeness. Larry Mestel, the founder of Primary Wave envisions an array of new projects to honor Brown’s legacy and promote his music to new generations of fans.

Source: After 15 Years of Infighting, James Brown’s Estate Is Sold

Attorneys for Penguin Random House and ViacomCBS argued on Monday that the proposed sale of Simon & Schuster will benefit authors, and should not be blocked under federal antitrust law. The Department of Justice filed the suit last month, seeking to block ViacomCBS from selling Simon & Schuster to Bertelsmann, the parent of Penguin Random House, in a $2.1 billion transaction.

Source: Penguin Random House Pushes Back on DOJ Suit Over Simon & Schuster Acquisition