The Merck Mercuriadis owned Hipgnosis Songs Capital is close to finalizing a deal to acquire Justin Bieber’s music rights for approximately $200 million, according to sources. The songs fund company backed by Blackstone is reportedly close to making a deal, which is not yet complete, includes Bieber’s shares of his publishing and recorded music catalog, which will still be owned and administered by Universal Music Group even if the deal goes through.
The news which was first reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal comes at a difficult time for Bieber, who recently postponed the remainder of his “Justice” tour until next year due to health issues, and amid a slowdown in the market for music catalogues. Hipgnosis recently acquired the song catalog rights of Justin Timberlake for a reported $100 million and the catalog of Leonard Cohen, which includes many older classics. A few months ago Mercuriadis, they also did a share buy back.
Sherrese Clarke Soares, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants and founder of HarbourView Equity Partners says, music is a sure bet to invest after she joined with Apollo Global Management to invest $1bn in music acquisitions.
“It’s safe retirement dollars to really put to work,” Soares told the Financial Times in January this year.
Soares was named among a list of Wallstreet Journal Women To Watch and has already snatched up 35 catalogues including a $100 million spend to acquire Despacito artist Luis Fonsi’s mostly spanish sing alongs.
She says, “I want to be the platform that sees the value in all these genres that live outside of legacy rock.”
“We can give a really good return for that type of risk. It’s safe retirement dollars to really put to work,” said Soares to the Financial Times as she goes on the hunt for music and media with a billion dollar check book.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund has raised £1.052 billion to fund acquisitions since it was established in 2018 and within their current portfolio are top acts and producers like 50 cent, Timbaland, Rick James, RZA, LA Ried, Pusha T, Neil Young, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Mercuriadis has been preaching the gospel to investors saying “songs are better that oil and gold” ever since he listed the Hipgnosis Songs Fund on the London Stock Exchange in 2018. However as soon as Hipgnosis raise new money, they buy more catalogues at head turning prices.
Shaggy had explained to WMV that the main reason catalogues were being acquired at astronomical prices was largely due to the interests rates being low up to two years ago.
The James Brown Estate reportedly walked away with $90 million from Primary Wave after a fifteen year contentious internal battle. Primary Wave Music is a New York company that specializes in marketing estates and song catalogs, bought the assets of the Brown estate, including music rights, real estate and the control over Brown’s name and likeness.
In Hip Hop younger musicians and rappers like Lil Wayne cashed out his entire Young Money catalogue including Drake and Nicki Minaj for $100 million to Universal Music Group.
Future recently sold his publishing in a deal said to be worth $65 million to Influence Media Partners. The sale includes 612 titles from 2004 to 2020.
The market peaked in last year when Universal Music Group dropped a cool $300 million to purchase entire songwriting catalog of Bob Dillon in one of the biggest acquisitions ever of a single act’s publishing rights, per New York Times. Sting and Bruce Springsteen also got 9 figure deals.
Tina Turner sold the rights to her music catalogue for $50 million dollars, including hits like The Best and Nutbush City Limits, to music publishing company BMG. Billboard Magazine reported in January that Columbian Superstar Shakira had sold 100% of her music publishing rights to Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
