Music Biz on the Rebound: Assessing the State of the Industry for Concerts, Songwriters, Publishing, Music Discovery and the Latin Explosion
Bob Dylan’s catalog deal with Universal Music Publishing Group fetched between $300 million and $400 million, 33,000 songs from Kobalt Music to Hipgnosis Songs Fund got around $323 million and the masters from Taylor Swift’s first six albums cost Shamrock Capital around $300 million. In 2020 and into 2021, music IP is sizzling, with no sign of demand waning.Most of the action has been in the song rights and publishing space, stirred by London-based Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis’ aggressive pursuit of songwriters’ shares.That hunt began when Hipgnosis plunked down $23 million for the catalog of rapper, writer and producer The-Dream in 2018.