Publishing Catch-Up: $100m-Backed AMR Songs Launches & Acquires John Sebastian Catalog, Italy’s SIAE Hits Out At Meta After Repertoire Exclusion

We catch up on the latest music publishing news, from key deals and signings to new hires, legislation and more.

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Deals & Acquisitions

MusicBird acquires Midge Ure catalogue (Music Week)

The music rights investment company has acquired the writer’s share, master recording and neighbouring rights income on over 300 songs across Midge Ure’s solo career and his work with Ultravox, Visage and more.

Corey Hart sells publishing catalog to peermusic (MBW)

Peermusic has acquired Canadian singer-songwriter Corey Hart music publishing catalog – four years after signing the artist to an exclusive global publishing administration agreement.

Pythagoras Music Fund (PMF) buys Barton Music Publishing catalog (MBW)

Financed by private and institutional investors, Pythagoras Music Fund (PMF) have already spent €100 million acquiring copyrights. The latest deal saw PMF buy Barton Music Publishing catalog, including songs performed by Frank Sinatra.

Shamrock Capital acquires Metro Boomin’s publishing catalog for nearly $70 million (Variety)

Producer, Metro Boomin, has sold a portion of his publishing catalog to Shamrock Capital. Shamrock continues to forge major investments in catalog sales, expanding its portfolio.

Cutting Edge acquires film music catalog from first score music in multi-million dollar deal (MBW)

Cutting Edge Media Music secured $100 million in financing from a group of bands led by Pinnacle Financial Partners to boost its cash reserves to invest in music for film, television, video games and more.

Position Music and Big Noise launch publishing JV including songwriter John “Feldy” Feldmann (Music Week)

Position Music and Big Noise Music Group have formed a strategic music publishing joint venture. Additionally, Position Music will be representing the Big Noise Music Group catalog.

Multimedia music raises another $100m, acquires catalog of Emmy-winning composer Sean Callery (MBW)

The Callery catalog deal follows a recent spending spree by MMM which included the acquisition of STX Entertainment’s music library in an eight-figure deal.

Iconoclast acquires music publishing catalog of Lady Gaga co-writer and producer Nick Monson (MBW)

Olivier Chastan’s acquisition vehicle has snapped up the music publishing catalog of Lady Gaga co-writer and producer Nick Monson, who Iconoclast says “has contributed to a bevy of widely successful modern pop hits”.

Signings

Warner Chappell renews deal with Bad Bunny collaborator MAG (Music Week)

A frequent collaborator of Bad Bunny, MAG produced 15 of the 23 tracks on the blockbuster album Un Verano Sin Ti. His tracks on the album have amassed 6.7 billion streams on Spotify alone.

Sony Music Publishing inks global deal with Caity Baser via Chosen Music (MBW)

Baser has attracted over 50 million streams to date and sold over 10,000 total tickets for her debut UK tour, says SMP.

Kobalt re-signs Tash Sultana for expanded global publishing deal (Music Week)

Kobalt has re-signed Tash Sultana to a worldwide publishing administration agreement, including global sync and creative services for future songs.

Concord Music Publishing signs Colony House frontman Caleb Chapman (Music Week)

“I have so much respect for Concord and the incredible work they do on behalf of their songwriters,” said Caleb Chapman.

Julio Reyes Copello Inks Global Deal With Sony Music Publishing (Billboard)

The Colombian producer, songwriter and engineer has penned hits for Latin pop superstars Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Thalía and others.

Facts & Figures

Five Takeaways from the 2023 IFPI Global Music Report (Billboard)

Global recorded music revenues grew 9% to $26.2bn in 2022. Streaming revenue grew 11.5%, Sub-Saharan Africa was the fastest-growing region with 34.7% growth.

Publishers Quarterly: Taylor Swift Rules With ‘Anti-Hero,’ Sony and Universal Duel for No. 1 (Billboard)

For the third consecutive quarter, Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group took their usual No. 1 spots on Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly ranking for the last quarter of 2022.

Legal

Childish Gambino song theft lawsuit has been dismissed (CMU)

The Childish Gambino 2018 hit song ‘This is America’ supposedly ripped off an earlier track ‘Made In America’ by Kidd Wes. The ‘distinctive flow’ of the earlier work was not protected by copyright.

Royalties & CMOs

In a shock move, Meta has pulled music by Italian songwriters from its platforms. Is this connected to Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘year of efficiency’? (MBW)

This week, The Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE), which represents tens of thousands of songwriters in Italy, issued a press release announcing that US tech behemoth Meta had decided to “exclude” its music repertoire from services such as Facebook.

ICMP and IMPF back SIAE in controversy over Meta music removals (Music Ally)

Meta has yet to comment publicly, but music publishing organisations have been weighing in to support SIAE. ICMP is one of them.

SESAC music group acquires distribution and content delivery platform Audiosalad (MBW)

SESAC, the Nashville-headquartered music licensing/collection society, has acquired New York-based content management, analytics, delivery and distribution tech provider AudioSalad.

Launches

$100 million backed rights company AMR Songs launches and acquires interest in catalog of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian (MBW)

AMR Songs has been described as a new “music publishing, rights management, and catalog marketing company”, and has launched with backing from private capital.

Warner Chappell launches limited edition music partnership to sign alternative rock, pop, and country songwriters (MBW)

Warner Chappell Music has announced a new partnership with Limited Edition Music, LLC to sign and develop emerging songwriters in the alternative, rock, pop, and alternative country spaces.

Various Artists and Stellar Songs join forces on music publishing joint venture (Music Week)

Based in London Alternative Songs will be a partnership between the international artist management firm and independent music publisher Stellar Songs.

People

Warner Chappell hires Catalina Santa Peña as Colombia MD (Music Week)

In her new role, Santa Peña will oversee WCM Colombia’s rapidly growing roster, championing local songwriters and global superstars.

Kobalt has appointed two new executives to its global publishing team (MBW)

Lindsey Lanier becomes Vice President, Creative based in Los Angeles and Desi O’Meara becomes Director, Creative based in New York.

Ultra International Music Publishing and Helix Records appoints Vanessa Kanapin to A&R role (Music Week)

Ultra International Music Publishing and dance label Helix Records have appointed Vanessa Kanapin to the position of director of A&R for Germany, Switzerland & Austria (GSA).

Downtown issues new round of layoffs as part of ‘reorganization’ (Billboard)

Downtown Music Holdings announced layoffs across the companies; CD Baby, Downtown Music Publishing, Songtrust, and Downtown Music Holdings (DMH).

Interesting Reads

U.S. Copyright Office AI Guidance Sparks More Questions Than Answers for Music (Billboard)

To clear up questions about the copyrightability of AI in music, the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) recently signaled that copyrighting songs is about to get a lot more complicated.

Nova Wav, Murda Beatz and Guy Moot Reveal Best Ways For Songwriters and Producers To Make and Manage Money (Billboard)

Here are five main takeaways from the “Music Publishing in the New Songwriter Economy” panel, moderated by Billboard’s Hannah Karp, at SXSW 2023.

In the Clear(ance) – Vickie Nauman on the Challenge of Clearing Music for Video Games (Synchblog)

In this edition of ‘In the Clear(ance), Vickie Nauman talks about clearing music for a video game where several of the writer’s shares belonged to independent creators outside of the traditional industry ecosystem.

AI and Copyright: Human Artistry Campaign Launches to Support Songwriters and Musicians’ Rights (Variety)

A new coalition called the Human Artistry Campaign to meet the challenges of AI was announced at the South by Southwest conference with the support from more than 40 organizations.

Council Of Music Makers calls for labels, publishers and DSPs to support streaming reform (Music Week)

The Council of Music Markers (CMM) has outlined five foundational changes it wants to see for music streaming. One of these changes included a minimum digital royalty rate for all featured artists.