From Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s financial results to HYBE’s Disney deal… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up… – Music Business Worldwide

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.

This week, Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) published its full-year financial results for the 12 months to end of March.

According to an independent valuer quoted in HSF’s financial filings (and as reported by MBW last year), HSF’s portfolio of copyrights was worth USD $2.55 billion at the end of September 2021.

Six months later (as per HSF’s new annual report) and that same independent valuer now says that – as of end of March 2022 – Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s portfolio was worth $2.69 billion.

In other words, over the course of six months, Hipgnosis grew in value by $140 million. Interestingly, this $140 million growth was achieved by HSF without buying a single catalog in the six months to end of March.

Elsewhere this week, US-based social video company Triller published an open letter from its CEO Mahi de Silva, calling for “every American” to delete its rival TikTok.

Within the letter, which echoes security concerns raised by officials in the US about the ByteDance-owned app, Triller’s CEO claims that “there is no doubt that TikTok plays a central role in enabling surveillance networks inside and outside China”.

The publication of Triller’s letter follows last month’s news that the company has filed to go public in the US on the NASDAQ.

Speaking of TikTok, this week, MBW asked how much TikTok actually paid the music industry from its $4 billion in revenues last year. As a percentage of that total 2021 turnover, the amount TikTok is estimated to have paid recorded music rightsholders ($179m) works out at 4.5%.

Also this week, Three Six Zero acquired the iconic SARM Music Village in London, while HYBE, the company behind K-pop stars BTS, struck a global content deal with The Walt Disney Company.

Here’s what happened this week.

1) Hipgnosis Songs Fund didn’t buy a single catalog in the 6 months to end of March. It still grew in value by $140m.

Yesterday (July 14), Hipgnosis Songs Fund published its full-year financial results for the 12 months to end of March.

Before we dig into that, and our headline above, the now-standard bit of housekeeping:

• Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) is the publicly-traded UK fund that IPO’d on the London Stock Exchange in 2018;
• Its investment advisor is Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM), which is run by Merck Mercuriadis and his team;
• Blackstone last year privately invested a billion US dollars in a new Hipgnosis fund, Hipgnosis Songs Capital (HSC), in addition to making an undisclosed investment in Hipgnosis Song Management;
• The latter company (HSM) is not only tasked with finding catalog acquisition opportunities for both HSF and HSC, but also with maximizing returns from their owned catalogs vis sync, marketing, streaming etc.

What was particularly interesting about Hipgnosis Songs Fund (the UK-listed entity) in the second half of its latest fiscal year? It didn’t spend a single penny on catalogs.

2) SO… HOW MUCH DID TIKTOK ACTUALLY PAY THE MUSIC INDUSTRY FROM ITS $4BN IN REVENUES LAST YEAR?

If you listened to the MBW’s most recent Talking Trends podcast – and thousands of you already have – you may have picked up on a particularly relevant data point for the modern music business.

According to MBW’s read of Goldman Sachs‘ latest Music In The Air report, TikTok paid recorded music rightsholders (i.e. labels and artists) a grand total of around $179 million in 2021.

Now. According to Bloomberg, TikTok generated revenues approaching $4 billion globally in 2021. TikTok is expected to triple this figure to $12 billion in 2022.

As a percentage of that total 2021 turnover, the amount TikTok is estimated to have paid recorded music rightsholders ($179m) therefore works out at 4.5%.

3) TRILLER CALLS FOR ‘EVERY AMERICAN TO DELETE TIKTOK’

Everything’s got a bit cozy this summer.

We haven’t had a proper public falling out in the music industry for some time now. But, up steps Triller.

This week, the US-based social video company published an open letter from its CEO Mahi de Silva, calling for “every American” to delete its rival TikTok.

The letter, in which Triller’s CEO “calls for every American to delete TikTok today and the US Government to take direct and overdue action to ban TikTok”, echoes security concerns raised by officials in the US.

4) THREE SIX ZERO ACQUIRES LONDON’S SARM STUDIOS FROM PRODUCER TREVOR HORN

Global artist management company Three Six Zero has acquired the iconic SARM Music Village in London.

The recording facility, located in Notting Hill, West London, houses six studios (commonly known as ‘SARM Studios’) and a suite of purpose-built offices. It had been owned, until now, by Grammy-winning producer Trevor Horn.

SARM Music Village has hosted studio sessions from superstar artists including Paul McCartney, Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Madonna, One Direction, Stormzy, Lana Del Rey, Paolo Nutini, Charli XCX, Mark Ronson, and Florence & The Machine.

5) HYBE STRIKES GLOBAL CONTENT DEAL WITH DISNEY, INCLUDING EXCLUSIVE SHOWS FROM BTS

The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific and Korean music giant HYBE have signed a global content deal.

The agreement includes the global distribution of five major content titles from HYBE, which include two exclusive series featuring the company’s flagship K-pop group, BTS.

In the press release announcing its strategic collaboration with HYBE, Disney says that it will introduce a series of new titles from HYBE over the next few years, “as the entertainment platform continues to produce high-quality content based on its music and artists’ IPs”.

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