{"id":2047182,"date":"2026-07-16T21:06:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2047182"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:06:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:06:31","slug":"as-the-music-catalog-investment-market-hits-a-high-note-financial-investors-are-cashing-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2047182","title":{"rendered":"As\u00a0the\u00a0Music Catalog Investment Market\u00a0Hits a High Note, Financial Investors Are Cashing Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/robbie-robertson-1987-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAmid the flurry of mergers, acquisitions and asset sales that have taken place in the music industry this year, the sale of three scaled music rights catalog companies \u2014 Anthem, Iconoclast and Crescendo \u2014 is a sign that the catalog investment market is approaching a milestone.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince 2018, when Hipgnosis Songs Fund listed on the London Stock Exchange and raised \u00a3200 million ($260 million)\u202fto invest in music intellectual property, the market for music as an \u201cinvestible asset,\u201d as Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis<\/strong> described it, has grown by the tens of billions.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDJ Quik Says His Son ‘Made a Mistake’ Following Murder Conviction, Pleads With Fans to Stop Asking About It\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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    \n\tPrivate equity funds including KKR and Bain have long invested in major music companies, while independent catalog companies like Primary Wave, Round Hill Music and the publisher Reservoir have been acquiring publishing rights and master recordings for decades. However, in the eight years since Hipgnosis\u2019 listing, there has been a boom in catalog investing as more private equity firms, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, global private credit investors and family offices \u2014 to name a few \u2014 have been drawn to the annuity-like returns music royalties provide in the streaming era.<\/p>\n

    \n\tAs the practice of treating music as an asset class has grown in popularity, it has also evolved, with companies from indie giants like Concord to the four-year-old music rights company Duetti securitizing their music portfolios to raise capital from debt markets. The rating agency KBRA says it has rated more than 80 music asset-backed securities with a cumulative value of $12.9 billion since 2020, and many of those, including Concord, Lyra and Canon, racked up triple the interest that was expected.<\/p>\n

    Jimmy Stone<\/strong>, managing partner at Alderbrook, which advises on music investing, wrote in a recent research note that market activity in the first quarter, like Primary Wave\u2019s acquisition of indie publisher Kobalt, signals that activity is now shifting from catalog acquisitions to the consolidation of scaled companies. And the backers of Anthem, Crescendo, Iconoclast and others are attempting to seize this moment and exit their music investments on a high note.<\/p>\n

    \n\tIconoclast, the music rights and brand development company started by\u202fOlivier Chastan<\/strong> and backed by the $2-trillion investment manager PIMCO, is in the final stages of a sale to Irving Azoff<\/strong>\u2019s Iconic Artists Group, according to three sources. Music Business Worldwide<\/em> previously reported Iconoclast was seeking a sale price around $500 million.<\/p>\n

    \n\tChastan previously headed\u202fIconic Artists Group, when the firm acquired rights to\u202fmusic by Brian Wilson\u202fand\u202fThe Beach Boys, David Crosby and Linda Ronstadt.<\/p>\n

    \n\tIconoclast has acquired select music rights to more than 30 catalogs, including\u202fDiplo\u2019s Mad Decent Publishing,\u202fDavid Cassidy,\u202fMarianne Faithfull,\u202fTony Bennett\u202fand\u202fThe Band\u2019s\u202fRobbie Robertson.\u202fMusic Business Worldwide<\/em> wrote that Iconoclast is generating at least $25 million in annual revenue.<\/p>\n

    \n\tAnthem Entertainment, the Canadian music company whose portfolio includes the publishing assets and recorded master royalties of Rush, Timbaland, and the music from the\u202fSpider-Man<\/em>\u202ffranchise, is also nearing a sale, to Influence Media.<\/p>\n

    \n\tThe main owner of Anthem, the Ontario Teachers\u2019 Pension Plan, previously went to market to sell the fund in 2017 and 2022, but those auctions came in below expectations. This time, around a dozen parties bid between $500 million and $600 million. Influence Media bid slightly above $650 million, sources say.<\/p>\n

    \n\tMeanwhile, global private markets investment firm Northleaf Capital is in advanced talks to sell the Crescendo catalog \u2014 which contains\u202fPete Townshend\u2019s publishing from his The Who repertoire;\u202fT. Rex\u2019s publishing catalog and masters; and\u202fIngrid Michaelson\u2019s\u202fmusic\u202fassets \u2014 to Litmus Music for around $500 million, sources say.<\/p>\n

    \n\tNorthleaf acquired Crescendo in 2021 after providing $500 million in funding to Lyric Capital Group in a deal that was termed a \u201cstrategic alliance.\u201d Lyric Capital was formed by\u202fJon Singer<\/strong>\u202fand\u202fRoss Cameron<\/strong> when they were executives at\u202fSpirit\u202fMusic\u202fto buy\u202fSpirit\u202fMusic\u202fand its catalog from original owner Pegasus Capital in 2018.\u202fSpirit\u202fMusic\u202fis now\u202fthe operational\u202fmusic\u202fcompany of Lyric Capital\u202fand serves as administrator for the Crescendo catalog. That portfolio also includes the 2014 acquisition by Spirit Music of the Cal IV Entertainment portfolio\u2019s country hits like Faith Hill\u2019s \u201cBreathe,\u201d Keith Urban\u2019s \u201cStupid Boy,\u201d Tim McGraw\u2019s \u201cWatch The Wind Blow By\u201d and Jason Aldean\u2019s \u201cBig Green Tractor.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tLitmus was launched in 2022 by music industry executives Hank Forsyth<\/strong> and Dan McCarroll<\/strong> with $500 million from private equity giant Carlyle Group. Its portfolio includes rights to music by Katy Perry, Benny Blanco and Keith Urban.<\/p>\n

    \n\tStone says music catalog companies raised more than $4 billion in the first quarter this year, surpassing all of the capital acquisition funds raised in 2024.<\/p>\n

    \n\tThat\u2019s plenty of dry powder for investment deals.<\/p>\n

    \"Billboard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/music-catalog-investment-market-grows-investors-cash-out\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/robbie-robertson-1987-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard Amid the flurry of mergers, acquisitions and asset sales that have taken place in the music industry this year, the sale of three scaled music rights catalog companies \u2014 Anthem, Iconoclast and Crescendo \u2014 is a sign that the catalog investment market is approaching a milestone. Since 2018, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2047182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2047182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2047182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2047182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2047182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}