From Steve Cooper’s final Warner interview to Harmony’s $1.8bn bond providing… it’s MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up

Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we make sure that you caught the 5 largest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their revenue and scale back their touring prices.

“[In] the stay music area, the value varies relying on who you’re seeing and what your expertise is. I believe the recorded music area must be extra like that. Ever since we had 99 cent downloads, there’s been a bent for music to be priced the identical. And everyone knows that every one music isn’t equal.”

That’s certainly one of many perceptive observations in regards to the trendy music enterprise from Steve Cooper, outgoing CEO of Warner Music Group, delivered in his final public interview because the boss of WMG this week.

Cooper will hand over the reins of CEO on the ‘third main’ to Robert Kyncl on the shut of this yr (though Cooper will stick with Warner by January 2023 to make sure a clean handover.)

Cooper additionally informed MBW in his unique ‘exit’ interview: “What I’ve discovered is that this: you will need to keep open and pragmatic. Nobody is aware of for positive the place that is all going. So don’t get seduced by your individual model and imaginative and prescient of the longer term, otherwise you run the chance of dropping sight of the bottom beneath your ft.”

Different huge tales on MBW this week included the most recent headline in music’s ongoing flirtation with the bonds market: Harmony confirmed that it has efficiently priced $1.8 billion of senior notes secured towards a “vital proportion” of its music rights portfolio.

There was additionally a string of vital numbers to emerge from UK-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund, because it introduced its H1 outcomes (for the six months to finish of September 2022). The most vital of these numbers? The agency’s gross revenues grew 7.5% YoY within the interval, as much as USD $91.7 million.

MBW additionally reported on main information up to now few days involving the likes of TuneCore and DeadMau5.

Learn on for our largest tales of the previous week…

1) CONCORD PRICES $1.8BN BOND OFFERING BACKED BY OVER 1M MUSIC COPYRIGHTS

On the finish of final month, Harmony was reported to have begun a course of that may see it turn out to be the most recent giant music firm to launch a bond providing by way of securitized royalties from copyrights.

In response to a Bloomberg report, monetary big Apollo International Administration was promoting a $1.65 billion bond backed by music rights from Harmony’s catalog, which might mark the music firm’s first securitization.

On Thursday (December 8), Harmony confirmed that it has efficiently priced $1.8 billion of senior notes secured by what it says is a “significant slice” of its catalog of sound recordings and songs…

2) HIPGNOSIS SONGS FUND REVENUES CLIMB 7.5% YOY, STREAMING REVENUES UP 15.8% YOY, IN MOST RECENT HALF-YEAR PERIOD

There have been a variety of eyes on Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) this yr. The UK-listed fund, as soon as essentially the most lively acquisitive entity in music rights, has paused its shopping for of catalogs over the previous 12 months, and hasn’t raised any new share capital for rights buyouts throughout this era.

HSF’s monetary outcomes, subsequently, give us a useful indication of the natural power of the corporate’s catalog, which covers rights/revenue streams in 65,413 songs, in keeping with firm paperwork.

Immediately (December 8), HSF has introduced its half-year outcomes for the six months to finish of September 2022, with quite a lot of constructive indicators, each for HSF buyers and for the music rights enterprise at giant….

3) TUNECORE HAS PAID OUT $3BN TO SELF-RELEASING ARTISTS TO DATE

Consider-owned music distribution service TuneCore on Thursday (December 8) introduced that it’s reached a major new milestone, having paid out $3 billion in royalties to self-releasing artists because the firm was based in 2006.

TuneCore says that the $3 billion payout determine represents a cumulative whole of earnings from all TuneCore music creators – “together with artists starting from hobbyists and nascent music creators to working professionals and even completed artists”.

The corporate additionally reported on Thursday that over 8,000 TuneCore artists have earned over $10,000 by its platform so far, with “hundreds of artists incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 and plenty of taking residence” over $1 million…

4) THE STEVE COOPER EXIT INTERVIEW: ‘ALL SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES GET TO A POINT WHERE THEY’D BENEFIT FROM FRESH EYES.’

Over the previous decade, Warner Music Group’s annual revenues have greater than doubled, up from $2.87 billion in FY 2011 to $5.92 billion in FY 2022.

In the meantime, WMG’s market worth has grown greater than 5 occasions throughout Steve Cooper’s reign as CEO – from $3.3 billion in 2011 to $17.1 billion right this moment (even amid a punishing macroeconomic local weather for share costs).

Right here, in Cooper’s final public interview as CEO of WMG, MBW asks him about his largest achievements in music, the scariest points he’s needed to overcome – and whether or not the subsequent 10 years of the music enterprise have any probability of being as brilliant because the earlier decade…

5) DEADMAU5 AND RICHIE HAWTIN’S METAVERSE PLATFORM PIXELYNX ACQUIRED BY ANIMOCA BRANDS

Animoca Manufacturers, the mother or father firm of The Sandbox gaming metaverse, has doubled down on its investments within the metaverse area after buying a majority stake in Pixelynx, a music metaverse gaming platform.

The funding follows current experiences that Animoca is launching a $2 billion metaverse fund for builders.

It additionally follows Animoca’s earlier funding in Pixelynx precisely a yr in the past when it led the latter firm’s $4.5 million seed funding spherical that was participated in by Solana Ventures, Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund, Hyperedge Capital, Republic Realm, and Sfermion…

MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their revenue and scale back their touring prices.Music Enterprise Worldwide