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Music Publishing Catch Up: Pophouse Acquires A Stake in Iron Maiden, US Music Publishing Revenues Hit $7.3B In 2025, Auditing Your Assets & More

  • Writer: Meg Adams
    Meg Adams
  • 11 minutes ago
  • 9 min read
Music Publishing Catch Up: Pophouse Acquires A Stake in Iron Maiden, US Music Publishing Revenues Hit $7.3B In 2025, Auditing Your Assets & More


We're back with our Q2 2026 Music Publishing Catch-Up, bringing you the biggest stories shaping the music publishing industry over the past few months.


From major acquisitions and catalogue deals to global signings, legal developments, investment, market insights, and the latest facts and figures, we've rounded up the essential headlines, along with a selection of thought-provoking reads you may have missed.


If you enjoyed this round-up and want to stay on top of the latest music publishing and wider music business news, subscribe to our newsletter here: www.synchtank.com/newsletter/ 



Deals & Acquisitions


The company has acquired a stake in Iron Maiden’s publishing and recordings rights, as well as their name, image and likeness rights. Plans are afoot for a cinematic tour-film, interactive fan experiences and “developing a digital universe centered around Eddie” – the band’s famous mascot. 


The deal completes a transaction first announced in 2016, when BMG acquired a majority stake in the ARC Music catalogue from Fuji Music Group. BMG first partnered with Fuji Music Group to administer the catalogue in 2010 before acquiring its majority interest.


At the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) annual meeting on Wednesday (June 10), president and CEO David Israelite announced the “first-ever industry-wide AI licensing deals” for publisher members with AI music firms Udio and KLAY, in his words. 


The transaction adds 71 compositions to Dynamite’s growing catalog of more than 1,700 works, which now spans six decades, from the 1960s to the 2010s, across genres including pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, dance, garage, EDM, country, Americana, and screen composition. The newly acquired catalogs join an existing portfolio that includes works by Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Avicii, The Black Eyed Peas, Joan Osborne, and Tinie Tempah.


Downtown Music Publishing (DMP) has announced a new deal to represent the catalog of pioneering hip-hop legend Biz Markie, including representation of the late artist’s name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights alongside publishing administration and sync licensing.


The latest deal, which includes efforts to remove unauthorized AI-generated music, follows the two companies in 2024 being in a dispute over royalties paid out by the video social media giant.


Sony Music Publishing has reached an agreement to acquire the complete music rights portfolio of Recognition Music Group from funds managed by Blackstone. The deal is subject to the usual closing conditions. Terms were not disclosed but reports suggested Recognition could be valued at up to $4 billion.


BMG and Concord have confirmed they are merging, stating that - by combining - they will be able to invest more in talent, reach and technology. The combined business will be called BMG, but will be run by current Concord boss Bob Valentine and will use the Concord brand for its recordings division


The acquisition includes the continuation of deals with Mothership’s roster of active songwriters, with Concord assuming the terms of the existing deals, as well as more than 5,000 copyrights across pop, indie pop, rock, alternative, indie folk, Latin, and singer-songwriter genres.


The deal with Kobalt will see the company collaborate on Udio’s licensed AI music creation service, which is expected to launch later this year. It follows the news that the music publisher will be acquired by Primary Wave.



Legal


Global Music Rights (GMR) has sued Music Choice for copyright infringement, accusing the music-programming company of performing songs from its catalog after the companies’ licensing deal expired.


Four radio groups located in South Dakota, Indiana, Mississippi, and New Hampshire have been accused of repeatedly refusing to renew their licenses to play music by members of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) over a period of several years. As a result, ASCAP has terminated their agreements and is now pursuing litigation.


The world's largest instrumental musicians union sued Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group in Manhattan federal court on Friday for allegedly licensing its members' work to tech companies for AI training ​without permission from the musicians.


A coalition of 227 rights organizations worldwide has called on France‘s National Assembly to pass a bill that would establish a legal presumption that AI companies have used copyrighted works to train their systems.


The suits, filed on Wednesday (May 20) in New York and Washington, D.C., target video game publisher GameMill Entertainment, auction house Heritage Auctions, accessories manufacturer Buckle-Down Inc., and the U.S. Department of the Interior.


A group of ten music industry organizations formally opposed a proposed 43% average increase to copyright registration fees, arguing the hike would lock out independent creators out of the registration system.



Signings


Notting Hill Music has signed rapidly rising drum & bass artist SOTA to a new global publishing agreement. The deal will see Notting Hill Music represent SOTA’s catalogue and future works worldwide, marking a major next step for one of the most exciting breakthrough artists in electronic music.


Warner Chappell Music has renewed its worldwide publishing agreement with Spanish singer-songwriter Quevedo. The renewal follows the arrival of Quevedo’s latest studio album, El Baifo. 


Sony Music Publishing UK, in partnership with its JV partner Second Songs, signed a global publishing agreement with Copenhagen-based songwriter Bastian Langebaek, which includes future works. Notably, Langebaek boasts six co-writes on Olivia Dean’s albums. 



Funding, Facts & Figures


US music publishing revenues rose to USD $7.3 billion in 2025. The total is up around 3.7% YoY on 2024’s $7.04 billion, which had climbed from $6.2 billion in 2023, and means US publishing has grown every year since 2014.


The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) has reported record revenues of €57.1 million for 2025, an 8% year-on-year increase. Membership has now passed 30,000 music creators worldwide, following the admission of 5,139 new members across 100 territories during the year.


The New York-headquartered company reported revenue of $175.7 million for its fiscal 2026, which represents an increase of 6% YoY on an organic basis or 11% YoY when including acquisitions throughout the fiscal year.


SGAE, Spain’s largest collection society, distributed €360 million in royalties to its members in 2025, up 3.1% from €349 million in 2024. The latest figure translates to USD $406 million at the average exchange rate for 2025.


Sony Music Group’s overall revenues were up 21% year-on-year to ¥570bn ($3.63bn at current exchange rates) in Q1 2026. Meanwhile, its net profit grew by 36% to ¥132.4bn ($843.4m) over the same period.


Paris-headquartered royalty collection society Sacem distributed EUR €1.502 billion ($1.69 billion) to artists and publishers in 2025, a 9% increase from 2024, as revenue from international digital platforms continued to outpace its domestic business.


£1.07bn of that was paid out to songwriters, composers and music publishers, up 4.9% year-on-year. And the society hailed the fact that it collected more than £100m from live music for the first time in its 110-year history.



People


GRAMMY Award-winning artist Youssou N’Dour has been named Vice-President of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC). The organization represents more than five million creators worldwide.


Universal Music Publishing Group Australia and Asia Pacific Region President, Andrew Jenkins, has announced he is leaving the company after nearly two decades.


Sunita Kaur has been appointed President, Asia, for Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). The news was announced on Monday (June 1) by UMPG Chairman & CEO Jody Gerson, to whom Kaur reports.


Sony Music Publishing has promoted ZaZa Kazadi to senior director of A&R, U.K. and Europe. He will remain based in the company’s London office. In his new role, Kazadi will be responsible for expanding opportunities for songwriters in the U.K. and Europe with a focus on hip-hop, rap, R&B and Afro genres.


Independent music publisher Kobalt has promoted Leslie Ahrens to managing director and EVP, creative, Latin America. She’ll report to Kolbat President & Commercial Officer Jeannette Perez from the Miami offices as she juggles creative and operational mandates in the Latin American region.


Warner Chappell Music is launching in India under its own name, transitioning from the sub-publishing model it has relied on to date to a full-scale, direct-to-market presence. The global publishing arm of Warner Music Group said Warner Chappell Music India, or WCM India, aims to offer Indian songwriters access to the company’s global creative network and rights management infrastructure, according to a Wednesday (April 22) announcement.



Interesting Reads


 We last wrote about royalty-management startup Mogul in February when it raised a $5m funding round. Now it has become the latest company to launch a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to play nicely with AI assistants. In this case, that means giving its artist and manager clients the ability to manage their royalties, distribution and publishing administration tasks from within services including Claude and ChatGPT.


If you have ever found yourself scratching your head over who actually gets paid when a sync deal lands, you are not alone. It's one of the most notoriously confusing aspects of the music business. But it doesn’t have to be.


The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) has launched AVR+, which the organisation said is designed to transform how music data is shared and processed across the global audiovisual industry.


What’s been happening to the music catalogue-sales market in the last couple of years? France-based analyst and journalist Philippe Astor has been crunching the numbers and filleting the trends for his new report.


We sat down with three members of the Synchtank team to get their honest take on what bad data actually looks like in the wild, what it costs, and exactly where to start if your catalog needs attention.


CISAC has released its 2026 Annual Report, detailing a year of "intensified global advocacy, policy engagement and progress" across the organisation's data infrastructure. The report outlines how CISAC and its network of authors' societies responded to accelerating AI and copyright debates, while advancing creator remuneration campaigns and strengthening data and rights management infrastructure.


But at some point — usually quietly, then all at once — the spreadsheet stops being a tool and starts being a liability. Here's how to know if you've crossed that line.





To close out this quarter's Publishing Catch-Up, we would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to everyone at Bella Figura, and to the family and friends of Alexi Cory-Smith. Alexi was a hugely respected figure in the music publishing community whose passion, leadership and lasting contribution to the industry touched so many. Our thoughts are with all those who knew and worked with her during this incredibly difficult time.






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