Publishing Catch-Up: Sony Music's Big Spending, Catalog Sales Pitfalls, Watch the Synchtank Summit & More

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

Sony Music’s spent $1.4bn on acquisitions in the last 6 months… & Rob Stringer’s not stopping there (MBW) Those deals included the $430m acquisition of AWAL and Kobalt Neighbouring Rights, the $255m acquisition of Brazilian label Som Livre, and Sony Music Publishing’s buyout of Paul Simon’s song catalog.

Bruno Mars Sells Part of Song Catalog to Warner Chappell Music (Billboard) Bruno Mars quietly sold off a portion of his song catalog to Warner Chappell Music more than six months ago, according to sources and confirmed by the company.

Universal Music and Triller bury the hatchet with licensing deals (Music Ally) “We’re pleased to have a deal with Triller that embraces the importance of compensating our artists, especially given the tremendous value music generates across their platform,” said UMG’s EVP of digital business development and strategy Jonathan Dworkin.

Creative technology firm Artlist joins independent licensing agency IMPEL (Music Week) Israeli audiovisual content provider Artlist has joined international collective licensing agency IMPEL. IMPEL will represent the digital rights for Artlist’s music catalogue of Artlist Originals.

Signings

Sony Music Publishing UK signs rock band Del Amitri to worldwide publishing deal (MBW) The agreement covers the band’s entire catalog, including the songs Roll To Me, Nothing Ever Happens and Always The Last To Know, as well as future works.

Concord Music Publishing signs Everything Everything (Music Week) Formed in Manchester in 2007, Everything Everything have released five albums across their career, garnering two Mercury Prize nominations and have also been nominated for five Ivor Novello awards.

Facts & Figures

Sony Music’s $400m social, gaming and fitness revenues (Music Ally) Stringer talked about a “meaningful increase” in Sony Music’s partner base in social, gaming and fitness, highlighting virtual concerts from Lil Nas X (Roblox) and Travis Scott (Fortnite) as well as artist partnerships with Peloton.

Publishers Quarterly: 'License' Drives Sony to No. 1 on Hot 100, Universal Rules Airplay (Billboard) Olivia Rodrigo's "Drivers License" dominated Hot 100 Songs, and she and co-writer Daniel "Dan" Leonard Nigro tied atop the list's songwriters ranking.

Finance & Investment

Common Music Catalog Sales Pitfalls and Tips on How to Avoid Them (Rolling Stone) The challenges that can arise with catalog sales are numerous, and in working across the industry, we’ve seen far too many creatives struggle with them.

Big Bank Theory: Inside the Nuances of Blockbuster Catalog Deals (Variety) A bank that understands the complexities of artists’ wealth plan and income needs — like City National — is a must for those aiming to cash in on their creative output.

Royalties & CMOs

Songwriter Groups Want Their Voices Heard on CRB Royalty Rate ASAP (Billboard) A group of songwriter organizations have urged the Copyright Royalty Board to ensure they have the chance to publicly comment on a mechanical royalty rate settlement for CDs, vinyl, downloads and ringtones that was agreed upon by the three majors, the National Music Publishers’ Assn., and the Nashville Songwriters Assn. International.

PRS bidding to become '£1 billion organisation' by 2026 (Music Week) PRS For Music CEO Andrea C Martin has outlined a five-year vision for the UK collection society with the target of becoming a "billion pound organisation" by 2026.

Universal Music's New Policy Presents a Speed Bump for Royalties Sales (Billboard) Long accepting of requests to assign royalties to creative third parties, with investors entering the equation UMG now wants artists and buyers to figure it out.

SACEM announces new deal with Spotify (CMU) French collecting society SACEM has announced it has signed a new deal with Spotify which, it says, has been agreed as the rights organisation “addresses challenges related to the platform’s launch of new offerings and expansion into new territories”.

Film and TV Music Royalties: What’s the Score? (Synchblog) We examine the unique challenges associated with administering film and TV music catalogs, from soundtracks to production music cues.

Legal

Copyrights, Royalty Splits & More: 'Ruthless' NFT Market Sparks New Legal Debates (Billboard) The kerfuffle reflects confusion over how the rapidly growing artistic medium fits into existing copyright law -- an especially thorny space to navigate for NFTs involving music, given the music industry’s complex web of rights-holders.

Germany Passes Controversial EU Copyright Reforms, Sparking Ire (Billboard) The new legislation "torpedoes the digital reality" of the German industry, says CEO of industry association BVMI.

From Beyonce’s Advisors to the Lawyer Behind Taylor Swift’s Masters Acquisition: The Top Music Attorneys of 2021 (THR) With touring halted during the pandemic, these attorneys helped clients leverage streaming and sell catalogs.

People

UMPG's Jackie Alway appointed next chair of ICMP board (Music Week) The International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) has announced Jackie Alway OBE as the next chair of the ICMP board.

Interesting Reads

Synchtank Summit Takeaways: Data Sharing, Standardization & the Creative Process (Synchblog) Experts discuss the music industry’s data challenges and the importance of sharing data, standardization, and understanding how creators create.

In 2021, How Do We Define an 'Indie' Publisher? (Billboard) Where should the line between ‘independent’ and ‘major’ be drawn? We are currently setting up a structured way to dive into these questions, starting with a session at the AIMP Global Music Publishing Summit.

10 Takeaways From Sony Music Group’s 2020 Review and Future Forecast (Variety) Read on for 10 takeaways from Stringer’s presentation and post-video Q&A (listen to the full program on the Sony Corp. site).

The 12 Biggest Film Sync Licensing Trends of 2021 (Digital Music News) Here’s an in-depth look at the film space’s most noteworthy sync licensing trends of 2021, based on a detailed breakdown from Ramesh Sathiah, Partner and Creative Director of music and sound design company Song Zu.

Are publishing A&Rs missing out on hitmaking signings because they lack the same level of digital tools labels have access to? (MBW) Are music publishing A&Rs missing out on obvious, hitmaking signings because they lack the same level of digital tools that record labels have access to?

The emergent power of intellectual property is transforming the global music industry (Synchblog) The opportunities to tweak the DNA that runs through existing recordings across an interconnected media landscape are distinct and interrelated, explains Ben Gilbert.

Synchtank's Data, Rights & Royalties Summit

Data, Rights & Royalties Summit - Watch Now From panel discussions on data, rights and royalties to our fireside conversation with Merck Mercuriadis, catch up with all the sessions from our recent summit.

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