Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.
Music’s next big money acquisition could be just around the corner.
This week, MBW reported that Qanawat Music, which operates as a music distributor across the Middle East and North Africa, is up for sale.
Our sources suggest that the asking price for the company is a substantial eight-figure sum, and that multiple large-scale music companies have kicked the tires on a potential acquisition.
We’re told that Warner Music Group is the current favorite to acquire Qanawat Music from its current owner, mobile tech firm Qanawat.
Speaking of big money deals in the music business, MBW also reported this week that Tempo Music, the music rights-acquiring fund launched by private equity giant Providence, is selling its music catalog.
Our sources tell us that Tempo’s portfolio is said to have an annual NPS (Net Publisher Share, i.e. gross profit) of “$30 million-plus”. This enabled MBW to take an educated guess as to the catalog’s potential future sale price, and that guess came out at around $500 million or above.
Elsewhere, Paris-headquartered Believe published its financial results for 2021 yesterday (March 17) – its first full-year results since floating on the Paris Euronext last summer, where it currently commands a market cap valuation of €1.21 billion ($1.43bn).
Believe grew its revenues by €135.8 million (30.7%) year-over-year, from €441.4 million in 2020, to €577.2 million (USD $682m) last year.
Also this week, Universal’s Virgin Music struck a global partnership with Australia’s biggest indie – Mushroom Group – while TikTok confirmed that TuneCore has been picked as the distribution partner for its new SoundOn service.
Here’s what happened this week.
Credit: Shutterstock
1) TEMPO MUSIC’S CATALOG IS UP FOR SALE – AND WE EXPECT IT TO GO FOR MORE THAN $500 MILLION
Tempo Music, the music rights-acquiring fund launched by private equity giant Providence, is selling its music catalog.
MBW has been informed by three senior industry sources that US-based Tempo’s rights portfolio is now on the block. A deck containing information about the sale has been distributed to potential acquirers across the business.
Since it launched in 2019, Tempo Music has acquired a catalog of rights / income streams from stars including Wiz Khalifa, Twenty One Pilots (via Tyler Joseph), Korn, Florida Georgia Line, and hit songwriter/producer Philip Lawrence…
2) MUSIC’S NEXT BIG-MONEY BUYOUT WILL BE THE MIDDLE EAST’S QANAWAT MUSIC, SOURCES TELL MBW
The music industry has seen its fair share of large-scale international acquisitions in the past few years – not least Sony Music‘s $255 million buyout of Brazil’s Som Livre.
MBW originally tipped our readers off on that Som Livre sale early, back in March 2021; Sony Music then confirmed it had agreed an acquisition the following month.
On Wednesday (March 16), we brought you news of the next big-money acquisition of an international music company: Qanawat Music, which operates as a music distributor across the Middle East and North Africa.
3) BELIEVE GENERATED $682M IN ANNUAL REVENUES LAST YEAR, UP 30.7% YOY
Paris-headquartered Believe published its financial results for 2021 yesterday (March 17).
The company reports that it grew its revenues by €135.8 million (30.7%) year-over-year, from €441.4 million in 2020, to €577.2 million (USD $682m) last year.
These results mark the company’s first full year results since floating on the Paris Euronext last summer, where it currently commands a market cap valuation of €1.21 billion ($1.43bn).
4) UNIVERSAL’S VIRGIN MUSIC STRIKES GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP WITH AUSTRALIA’S MUSHROOM GROUP
Universal Music Group‘s Virgin Music Label & Artist Services (VLMAS) division has entered into a global partnership with Australia’s largest independent label group, Mushroom, to support and distribute Mushroom artists’ releases worldwide, outside of Australia and New Zealand.
The Mushroom label division remains 100% independently owned and its established ANZ operations will remain unchanged as a result of the partnership.
Mushroom will continue to digitally distribute itself in ANZ, as Merlin members, and continues its long standing physical distribution partnership with Universal Music Australia.
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5) TIKTOK’S PARTNER FOR ITS NEW SOUNDON DISTRIBUTION SERVICE IS… TUNECORE
TikTok has now confirmed to MBW that Believe-owned digital distribution platform TuneCore has been picked as its distribution partner for SoundOn.
In short, this means that artists who upload their music to TikTok SoundOn will then have that music distributed to other platforms (Spotify, Apple Music etc.) via TuneCore.
TuneCore has been the service’s distribution partner, we’re told, since SoundOn quietly launched in beta in September last year.
MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.Music Business Worldwide
