Publishing
Anitta Signs Global Deal With Sony Music Publishing
Sony Music Publishing, the current leading publisher for the Top Radio Airplay and the Hot 100 Songs charts, has announced the signing of pop sensation Anitta. Known across the world for her fusion of latin, radio pop and Brazilian baile funk, Anitta’s new agreement will see the young star represented by the publisher in all territories. The new deal arrives after a breakthrough year in the U.S. market for the singer, whose songs “Girl From Rio” featuring DaBaby, and “Faking Love” featuring Saweetie, both cracked the top 40 on Billboard‘sPop Airplay charts in 2021. In her native Brazil, Anitta reigns as the country’s highest streamed artist, and she made history this year as the country’s first musical export to perform at the MTV VMAs. She is also a six-time Latin Grammy nominee and nine ...
Inside Hipgnosis Songs’ Mid-Year Report
Hipgnosis Songs Funds improved its gross revenue for the six months ended Sept. 30 by 35% year-on-year to $85.3 million, primarily due to the revenue from eight catalogs with 1,315 songs acquired in the previous six months, the company announced Thursday (Dec. 16) in its bi-annual report to investors. Net revenue—gross revenue minus royalties paid to songwriters under contract and administered catalogs—grew 31% $74.1 million during the same period. Since its launch in 2017, Hipgnosis has built a catalog of over 65,000 songs with a net asset value of $1.63 billion as of Sept. 30, up from $1.46 billion on March 31. (NAV is the acquisition costs less amortization.) An alternative measure, “operative” NAV, which adds to NAV the increase in the catalog’s fair value...
What Is Eldridge Industries? A Primer on Sony’s Springsteen Partner
Bruce Springsteen’s blockbuster catalog sale to Sony Music Group this week also established a new player in rights acquisitions. Investment firm Eldridge Industries, which partnered with Sony to finance the purchase of Springsteen’s publishing, now holds a stake one of the industry’s most coveted catalogs — around which it can build an attractive portfolio. Eldridge Industries is a private investment firm with holdings in tech, media, retail, entertainment and other sectors. Co-founded in 2015 by Todd Boehly, a former president at Guggenheim Partners, Eldridge investments include the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, sports gambling company DraftKings, private jet provider Flexjet and personal finance app Truebill, among others. Eldridge owns a stake in P-MRC, a joint venture of MRC and P...
Warner Chappell Taps Christine Belden to Head Global Film, TV and Media Music
Warner Chappell Music has hired Christine Belden for the new role of vp global head of film, TV and media music. This role sees the major publisher investing more resources and attention to its film and TV music catalogs. Reporting to Rich Robinson — the company’s executive vp global sync and media original music — Belden will oversee acquisitions of broadcast rights in the film and TV industry. Coming over from Kobalt, where she was responsible for the company’s creative and strategy for its global film and television publishing business, Belden brings her experience working with some of the top names in the film business to Warner, including A24, National Geographic, Black Label Media and more. She also previously held a position as an agent at CAA, representing composers and music super...
‘Eye of the Tiger’ Writer Strikes Catalog Deal With Primary Wave
Jim Peterik — a songwriter and band member of The Ides of March, ’80s pop-rock band Survivor and southern rock group .38 Special — has sold a majority stake in his full publishing catalog to Primary Wave. According to sources close to the deal, the acquisition is purported to be in the ballpark of $20 million. It includes Peterik’s stake in the perennial rock anthem “Eye of the Tiger,” which became Survivor’s greatest hit after its placement in Rocky III‘s montage training scene. Along with “Eye of the Tiger,” Peterik’s new partnership with Primary Wave will include other Survivor co-writes like “Burning Heart,” “High On You” and “I Can’t Hold Back.” It also includes .38 Special’s platinum-selling hits “Hold On Loosely” and “Caught Up In You” as well as “Vehicle” by The Ides of March. Prim...
TikTok, APRA AMCOS Sign Multi-Year ‘Landmark Deal’
TikTok has struck a new, multi-year licensing arrangement with APRA AMCOS, the Australasian PRO that represents more than 111,000 songwriters, composers and music publisher members. This new pact is the first between both parties, and is a retroactive one that’ll deliver a new revenue stream for music creators in Australia and New Zealand, reads a statement from APRA AMCOS. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though the society confirms that the partnership accounts for TikTok’s past use of musical works, including the service Musical.ly. APRA AMCOS’ agreement with TikTok “legitimizes the use of music on the platform in Australia and New Zealand, and recognizes the important contribution that the songwriters, composers and publishers of that music make to TikTok’s success,” comments APRA...
Publishing Briefs: Primary Wave Acquires Mike Scott Catalog; DJ Alok Signs With UMPG
Primary Wave Music has bought a stake in the music publishing catalog of singer-songwriter Mike Scott of the Waterboys. Terms of the deal include a share in all publishing rights and income streams, as well as master rights and income streams owned by Scott. Included in the deal are a number of Scott’s biggest hits for the band including “Fisherman’s Blues” and “This Is the Sea,” as well as “Whole of the Moon.” Primary Wave Music will also maintain an ongoing partnership with Scott to manage all assets owned by the musician. In addition, Primary Wave will work with Scott to secure marketing opportunities regarding his name and likeness. Furthermore, Scott will now have access to Primary Wave’s entire marketing team and publishing infrastructure which includes branding, digital,...
Bruce Springsteen In Talks to Sell Recorded Music Catalog to Sony Music
The Springsteen album catalog, which has racked up 65.5 million sales in the United States according to the RIAA website, and which includes the 15-times platinum Born In The U.S.A. and the five-times times platinum The River, still has plenty of firepower, as his music has generated 2.25 million album consumption units in the U.S. since the beginning of 2018, according to MRC Data. While Springsteen has long been associated with Columbia Records and Sony Music, he was among a handful of superstar artists like Garth Brooks, AC/DC, Pink Floyd and other Sony artists Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson who all managed to win back ownership of their recorded masters in the last decades of the 20th century. But now seems to be the perfect time for artists who own their copyrights to cas...
The Deals: A$AP Ferg Joins Roc Nation; UTA Music Signs Dillon Francis
Dillon Francis has signed with UTA Music to oversee the DJ’s film, television and alternative media pursuits in addition to his international touring business in Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Francis will continue to be represented by Canopy Media Partners and TMWRK. Having just put out his fifth record Happy Machine, Francis is working on endeavors outside of music, penning scripts for his animated series titled Gerald’s World, which is currently in development. He is also putting together a treatment for a show about his alter-ego DJ Hanzel. Big Loud Records has signed rising country singer Jake Worthington to its growing lineup of artists. Worthington, who emerged as a finalist on NBC’s The Voice in 2014,...
CISAC 2020 Report: Global Publishing Collections Fell 10.7% Last Year
That 10.7% overall decline for music, however, was “considerably less disastrous than was foreseen one year ago,” as Oron observed, while TV and radio — still the largest sources of income for collection management organizations — declined less than expected due to a resilient economy. At the front-end of the COVID-19 pandemic, CISAC was anticipating a 25%-30% decline in collections for 2020, based on estimate reports then from member organizations, Oron tells Billboard. As well, “digital collections have managed to mitigate the fall in other income sources in many countries,” Oron said. “The surge of digital collections globally is a tribute to the efforts of CISAC societies to change strategy, shift resources and step up digital licensing activit...
Primary Wave Signs Expansive Deal With Luther Vandross Estate
As a multi-hyphenate musical talent who worked in the industry as a background singer, artist, producer and writer for over three decades, Vandross’s new deal with Primary Wave includes cuts of publishing and master recording income from his production work for Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, and Dionne Warwick. The deal also includes many of his top tracks from his own artist career, including “Never Too Much,” the titular single from his 1981 album which earned a no. 1 spot on Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and his cover “Endless Love,” featuring Mariah Carey, “Here and Now,” and “Dance With My Father.” Born in 1951, New York-raised Vandross began his career when he was still in grade school, singing at Harlem’...
APRA AMCOS Powers to Record Revenue, Despite Impact of COVID-19
The results are published in the APRA AMCOS’s Year In Review. On closer look, the APRA AMCOS financial year is a reflection of the two-speed music economy, one where digital is thriving, and those portfolios engaged with live entertainment — including public performance income and background music royalties — are in the doldrums. Those banner results, say the organization, belies “the financial hardship affecting local music creators” whose livelihoods have been crushed by the pandemic. With millions of music fans stuck at home, the brightest spot was streaming. Thanks to audio streaming services and on-demand services, digital revenue was essentially “pandemic proof,” according to a statement accompanying the PRO’s full-year financial results. Digital income grew during the pe...
