You didn’t suppose he was performed, did you?
Merck Mercuriadis, the maverick founding father of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, is launching a brand new funding agency focusing on artist administration firms and music catalogs by a partnership construction that provides acts and their representatives possession stakes.
The Monetary Occasions reported on Saturday (July 5) that Mercuriadis’ new enterprise has already secured commitments within the “tons of of thousands and thousands” of {dollars}, citing individuals accustomed to the matter.
The FT quoted Mercuriadis as saying: “I’m going to amass 5 – 6 actually necessary administration firms, all of which have celebrity artists and celebrity managers that go together with them.
“It’s all about them having management and all about them making the vast majority of the cash [rather than labels].”
Mercuriadis additionally plans to purchase music catalogs that may present “very predictable, dependable, low-risk” earnings, in line with the FT.
Mercuriadis’ new firm – identical to his former firm – shall be referred to as Hipgnosis.
Mercuriadis stepped down as chairman of Hipgnosis Track Administration final yr after Blackstone acquired publicly traded Hipgnosis Songs Fund for $1.584 billion (roughly a $2.2 billion enterprise valuation) in July 2024.
“I’m going to amass 5 – 6 actually necessary administration firms, all of which have celebrity artists and celebrity managers that go together with them.”
Merck Mercuriadis
Following that transaction, HSF’s 40,000 songs had been mixed with the privately held Hipgnosis Songs Capital (aka Hipgnosis Songs Belongings) – dwelling to copyrights related to Leonard Cohen, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Nelly Furtado, and Kenny Chesney – together with the funding adviser, Hipgnosis Track Administration.
This mixed, Blackstone-owned firm was then rebranded to Recognition Music Group, eradicating Hipgnosis’ well-known upside-down elephant brand.
In flip, this left Mercuriadis free to revive it for his new enterprise.
Mercuriadis instructed the FT, as he beforehand talked about at Canada’s Departure convention, that one in all his long-term ambitions is to purchase again the $2 billion+ catalog of music rights he assembled at (the previous) Hipgnosis.
“One among my targets is to purchase the catalog again. Blackstone are very good individuals. They’re getting an ideal return on the catalog that I put collectively.”
Merck Mercuriadis
“One among my targets is to purchase the catalog again. Blackstone are very good individuals. They’re getting an ideal return on the catalog that I put collectively. So I’m going to must pay correctly for it,” he stated.
“The one factor that everybody has stated submit the sale is, ‘OK, this [sale price] now appears low cost.’”
Practically a month in the past, Recognition Music Group fashioned a Senior Advisory Group and appointed Matt Spetzler as Chairman, alongside Lisa Alter and David H Johnson as members. Spetzler is the founding father of Jamen Capital and a veteran know-how and media investor.
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