Reservoir Media has signed a go-forward publishing deal with Grammy-nominated producer, songwriter, and trombonist Nick Lee. Perhaps best known for composing the horn melody for Lil Nas X’s “Industry Baby,” featuring Jack Harlow, Lee has also become a go-to collaborator for artists like Megan Thee Stallion, Vince Staples, Dillon Francis, Mustard, Stray Kids, CL, JJ Lin, and more. In addition to working with some of the industry’s coolest stars, Lee also scores network TV shows like NBC’s Grand Crew and Fox’s Welcome to Flatch. Up next, he will be co-composing the Netflix drama The Brothers Sun. Sony Music Publishing announced a worldwide publishing agreement with songwriter and producer, Nicolas Jaña, artistically known as Taiko. The artist began creating beats at the age of...
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. With a handful of music companies’ quarterly earnings releases now in the books, the outlook for the second half of the year appears strong almost across the board. There is one area of weakness, however: online advertising. On Wednesday, French music company Believe slightly raised its guidance for fiscal 2022 but warned in its investor presentation that organic growth will slow in the second half of the year “as the ad-funded streaming activities should be affected by rising inflation and economic uncertainties.” Spotify also pointed to some weakening in advertising. “For advertising, we did see some softening in tren...
Ross CH Acquisition II is bringing $115 million to Reservoir’s public offering as part of the deal. Some institutional investors including Caledonia have been lined up as anchor shareholders, which will bring in $150 million in gross proceeds. In the end, after investment banking, legal fees and other expenses, Reservoir will be left with $246 million in gross proceeds from the transaction. The company’s current shareholders, including the Khosrowshahi family, will roll over all their Reservoir equity into the new company, giving it an enterprise value of $788 million. That means that the Reservoir shareholders will likely have a lock-up period — maybe 180 days — before they can cash in any of their shares. In the meantime, the company has an implied pro-forma equity value of $...