There is growing interest in reggae music catalogues as an asset class according to Sherrese Clarke Soares, CEO and co-founder of private equity firm HarbourView.
The Billboard Power 100 woman already owns some of music’s biggest catalogue including latin superstar Louis Fonsi’s songbook which she bankrolled for 100 million said she is already looking for music from Jamaica to add to her company’s bottom-line.
“We love local music and Diaspora music, what we mean by that is we think it’s a reflection of the world. We think it has the ability to grow and to scale globally, particularly as the diaspora of second and third generation and beyond become participants in the music and the culture,” the Queens New York native said.
While the former Morgan Stanley intern expressed a future interest in reggae catalogues, Apollo Global invested $1bn in her company and she bought Usher’s share of Justin Bieber catalogue for a reported $40 million. The rush for music publishing, masters, image and likeness acquisitions have taken up the pages of every financial media publication over the last three years as the commercial value of intellectual property on Wall Street is triggered by lowered interest rates during the pandemic.
There are dozens of dancehall and reggae artists with extensive catalogues and in recent months several legendary Jamaican acts have sold their royalties to record labels and private equity companies according to people close to the matter.
Big acquisitive players include the major labels, Blackstone, KKR and Hipgnosis in the U.K raised more than £1bn to buy up catalogues from artists including Neil Young. Merck Meruciadis, CEO of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, told WMV that he is interested in buying reggae music.
Even the Church Of England CCLA has become an investor in the catalogues of artists all over Europe and America.
International artists like Iggy Azalea, Justin Bieber, John Legend, Tina Turner, Neil Diamond, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Stevie Nicks, Justin Timberlake and more have sold their life’s work for eye-popping sums of money: The James Brown Estate reportedly walked away with $90 million from Primary Wave after a fifteen year contentious internal battle.
HarbourView’s slogan is “Content Is Queen” and their current portfolio includes Despacito, YouTube’s most viewed song which is the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Central District Court by 80s dancehall pioneer producers Steely & Clevie.
“One of the beautiful things about Jamaica is our culture punches well above its weight, Jamaica is a known brand globally, for such a small country our diaspora and the heritage has the power to transcend in so many spaces. So recognizing that power and the ability it has to travel around the world and shape hearts and minds is core to who I am and what we believe in so we will be excited to do things in the reggae space. We looked at several opportunities and we believe that we have opportunities in our portfolio soon,” she said.
The increased interest in reggae music catalogues is underscored by IFPI’s Engaging With Music Report which found that reggae music is the tenth most listened genre globally.
Chris Blackwell, the man who launched Bob Marley to the world sold a percentage of his share of the Marley’s publishing to Primary Wave for $50 million back in 2018.
The Marley Family
Two members of the Marley Family told World Music Views that under no circumstances would they sell their family’s share of Bob Marley’s catalogue.
Rohan Marley was a guest on the I am Athlete podcast; on the episode Rohan revealed gory details of his personal life and the early struggles the Marley family had to endure to secure a successful legacy for their father.
“Its not as easy as you think, when we were children, when my father passed away he didn’t have a will, so the government in Jamaica wanted to sell all his rights, so it was my sister Cedella and Mama Rita and she was the one to fight for it…we had no money, everything was frozen, my dad wasn’t making any money..All we had was our father’s rights, his likeness and his music and we did not sell that,” he reasoned.
“At no time we will sell that..people offered us 20 million dollars,” he dismissed passionately.
He recalled a time when Michael Jackson had the opportunity to help the family out of their struggles and instead Michael offered to buy the rights to Bob Marley’s Catalogue.
“We went to Michael( Jackson), and say ‘hey Micheal, could you help us?’ We need some money, we don’t have no money and they trying to take ours, Michael say ‘no, I’ll buy it’. MCA wanted to buy it,” he said.
“Chris Blackwell” Rohan said, “the guy everybody don’t like, he loaned us(the family) the money,” he gleefully stated.
“We were able to buy our father’s rights because when they sold it they gave the children first rights of refusal…We had (to raise the) money at the time to buy the publishing rights, name and likeness..we would never put our father’s likeness and rights in anybody’s hands, The Marley Coffee Owner said.
“Thats why today it’s us”, he concluded on the subject.
Rohan’s sentiments are in alignment with his older brother Ziggy Marley’s suasions. The Grammy winner told World Music Views it has not even crossed his mind to sell his own extensive musical catalogue much less his father’s musical rights.
“No sah, it’s not even a thing weh cross me mind, no man me a leave that for my children dem, maybe my grandchildren them will sell it,” he laughed.
He continued, “As me say is a bigger picture a gwan so we half I look beyond right now, haffi look ahead too..there has been offers, all (for) me father, people offer thing but we nah sell that so, no sah”.
Bob Marley & The Wailers, Shaggy and Sean Paul are the most successful artists to ever come from Jamaica who enjoy a catalogue of hits that seem to be selling forever. They occupy the top three spots on the Billboard Reggae Albums averaging 8000-11000 units per week.
Shaggy’s former manager Robert Livingston said if the price is right he would sell the music he owns.
Livingston who is also a music producer owns an extensive catalogue of reggae and dancehall hits, and he told World Music Views,
“I wouldn’t say I would or wouldn’t, I get a lot of calls and approach like that but that’s not something I would talk, if somebody come with the right money you never know, I would never say no and never say yes so depend on the deal and the approach, its business, it’s fun but it’s also business, artists can go on a stage and sing but I can’t so I have to make sure its business.”
