acquisitions
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Sherrese Clarke Soares‘ HarbourView Equity Partners and Diddy‘s Revolt are among the bidders finalizing second-round offers to acquire a majority stake in BET Media Group from Paramount Global, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks.
Jesse Collins Entertainment, which produced the Grammys and this year’s SuperBowl halftime performance by Rihanna, is also mulling joining HarbourView and Revolt’s joint offer for the package of networks that includes VH1, said one of the sources, who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the talks.
Paramount Global is reportedly exploring selling a majority stake in BET Media Group, which includes BET, BET+, BET Gospel, BET HER, BET International, BET Jams, BET Soul, BET Studios and VH1, for as much as $3 billion, as it looks to offload assets like book publisher Simon & Shuster and preschool service Noggin to focus on its streaming business.
Sources say other bidders submitting second-round offers for BET Media Group include Tyler Perry and Byron Allen. Paramount is reportedly looking to finalize deals this fall.
A spokesperson for BET declined to comment for this story.
Soares, whose private equity firm owns rights to songs by regional Mexican trio Eslabon Armado, Luis Fonsi and Florida Georgia Line, confirmed during a red-carpet interview with Billboard at the BET Awards that HarbourView has an active bid for the media group.
“We are here because of how much we support the brand and how excited we are about the opportunity around the brand itself,” Soares said, declining to share further details.
A former Morgan Stanley managing director, Soares founded HarbourView in 2021, initially to acquire publishing and music recording rights — an investment strategy she helped develop as CEO and co-founder of Tempo Music. More recently, Soares has guided HarbourView’s investments in media companies, aiming to build out a distribution network for content soundtracked by artists in its catalog.
In March, HarbourView led a $90 million investment in a minority stake in MACRO, a film, television and branding company founded by Charles D. King, whose projects include Judas and the Black Messiah. Directed by Shaka King, Judas made history in 2021 as the first-ever film with an all-Black production team to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
“Our interest is to be fuel to the entertainment and media segment,” Soares told Billboard at the BET Awards, referencing HarbourView’s investments in catalogs and MACRO. Regarding the results of the bids for BET, Soares said, “We’ll let the cards fall where they may.”
Neon 16’s co-founder/CEO Lex Borrero and Ntertain chairman Tommy Mottola teamed up to acquire Arro Media, a music marketing and social media agency that boasts a roster of clients like Adidas, Red Bull, NFL, XBOX, Bacardi, The Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation and more.
Founded by Cristina Arcay, the company will be rebranded as AM16.
“We have built a growing agency that will redefine how brands connect their marketing and advertising to the Latin culture because we live it day in and day out,” said Borrero and Mottola in a press release. “Our team has a finger on the pulse of trends, uniquely positioned to spot them before they happen, across music, television and film. Today’s announcement further differentiates our capabilities from competitors and will bring an even more comprehensive offering to our clients and partners.”
AM16 will find the intersection between music, entertainment and culture. Together, they will bring Arro’s capabilities with Neon16’s “innovative approach to cultural storytelling and experiential activations,” they said. The merger will include brand strategy and partnerships, product development, content production, music marketing, social media management, digital marketing, public relations, creative design services and experiential events.
“Launching AM16 agency represents an exhilarating new chapter in my career and the future of Arro,” said Arcay, who is appointed as co-president. “As a Latina entrepreneur, being able to lead and learn alongside our new partners represents a huge opportunity to reshape the industry by championing diversity, elevating ideas and fostering cultural movements that resonate with audiences worldwide.”
Chief marketing officer and co-president Gerry Rojas added, “I feel empowered and excited to be working in a Latino-owned agency where we’re reimagining how brands and artists tell their stories authentically, while raising the Latin cultural currency and creating a true, positive impact rooted in music and culture.”
Neon16 works with A-listers such as Tainy, Thalia, Juan Luis Guerra and Danna Paola. Earlier this year, the company also played a key role in the Netflix Original series La Firma — a Latin music competition that sought to sign the next big Latin music star, featuring Tainy, Rauw Alejandro, Nicki Nicole, and Lex Borrero.
Borrero and Mottola also executive produced Thalia’s music docuseries, Thalia’s Mixtape, via Ntertain on Paramount+.
Artist management company In De Goot Entertainment and independent record label So Recordings (part of the U.K.-based Silva Screen Music Group) have partnered to form the label imprint SO In De Goot, Billboard can reveal.
The first U.S. signing to the imprint is Princess Goes, the band fronted by actor and musician Michael C. Hall alongside keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen and drummer Peter Yanowitz; the group will release its sophomore album later this year.
Bill McGathy
Jennie McGathy
“We have developed a great relationship with Adam Greenup and So Recordings and have major respect for the work they do and their meaningful roster,” said In De Goot Entertainment president/owner Bill McGathy in a statement. “Thanks to So Recordings’ success in the UK and Europe, this new partnership allows In De Goot to strengthen our global footprint and offer new opportunities to our roster and So’s roster in the U.S.”
Adam Greenup
Courtesy of Adam Greenup
So Recordings MD Adam Greenup added, “Bill and his whole team at In De Goot have been our close friends and allies for nearly a decade. We have seen how the team commits and delivers in all areas of North American promotion and beyond. Bill and I had a joint lightbulb moment one morning in his New York office — our roster (old and new) aligned with In De Goot’s weight and influence in the U.S. rock and indie lanes — the fit was just obvious. We would sign, record and promote artists together.”
In De Goot’s current roster includes Biffy Clyro, GWAR, Halestorm and Shinedown, while the So Recordings roster boasts Placebo, Enter Shikari, Band of Skulls and Dinosaur Pile-Up.
Ariana Grande‘s r.e.m. beauty drew a strategic investment led by private investment firm Sandbridge Capital with participation from Strand Equity, HYBE America, Live Nation Entertainment and Universal Music Group. The funds will be used for product innovation, talent acquisition and geographic expansion.
Sony Music Masterworks made a majority investment in Barcelona-based live music and experiential events producer Proactiv Entertainment. Under the deal, Proactiv managing director Nicolas Renna will continue leading the company’s day-to-day operations while working closely with Sony Masterworks president Mark Cavell and Sony Music Spain & Portugal president Jose-Maria Barbat to grow the business.
Music collaboration platform boombox.io, a new company from entrepreneur Tom Chavez, closed $7 million in seed capital. The round was led by Forerunner with participation from Chavez’s super{set} startup studio as well as Ulu Ventures. The funds will allow the generative AI-assisted platform to build out its team, accelerate product development and strike new partnerships. Launched in November, boombox.io allows music producers to store, version and track their music files; collect time-stamped feedback on audio files; communicate via iOS and Android apps; manage splits; and create legally-binding contracts.
Glendale, Ariz.-based VAI Resort announced the VAI Amphitheater, a new 8,000-capacity venue slated to open in 2024. Set against the backdrop of the resort, the venue will offer multiple viewing options, including hotel room balconies, as well as a $40 million stage and state-of-the-art technology. To bring the amphitheater to life, the resort has partnered with live event solutions company TAIT Group and audiovisual company Solotech.
88rising has partnered with Steve Aoki on FLUXGEN, a new creative hub for Asian talent globally. The first release under the new venture is “The Show,” a collaboration between Aoki and Mandopop star JJ Lin.
Music composition system DAACI, which is driven by a suite of AI tools, acquired fellow AI music technology companies MXX and WiSL. Founded by Dr. Joe Lyske, DAACI uses dynamic music AI that allows artists and composers to tailor compositions for specific uses in gaming, digital worlds, XR or VR experiences.
Amplifyd, an auction platform and marketplace for the music industry, launched out of beta and announced a partnership with Insomniac Events, with which it hosted a series of charity auctions at Insomniac’s 2023 EDC festival in Las Vegas that featured participating artists Marshmello, Armin Van Buuren, Yellow Claw and Deorro.
Tokyo-based virtual live music event platform Vark raised 1 billion yen ($7.2 million) in Series C funding through a third-party allotment of new shares to SBI Investments and NetEase Games, in addition to existing investors JAFCO Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and ANRI. The funds will be used to strengthen the company’s product development system, develop new businesses and more.
Myxt, a collaborative workspace for audio creators, partnered with AI stem separation platform AudioShake under a deal that will allow Myxt users to utilize AudioShake’s source separation tool, create stems, and export them for opportunities in content creation, synch licensing, mixing and more.
AI music analysis and recommendation platform Cyanite acquired aptone, an AI-based service that allows music producers to classify and search samples. Aptone founder Johannes Giani will join the Cyanite board as director of information technology, helping Cyanite develop its technology and continue enhancing and expanding the offering for Cyanite’s international customers including BMG, Pond5, APM Music and RTL. The acquisition allows Cyanite to increase the accuracy with which it analyzes and tags samples. Both Cyanite and aptone are based in Germany.
In order to meet the growing demand for physical music and video in the United Kingdom, Utopia Music has entered a long-term contract with DP World for a £100 million ($124.8 million), 25,000-square meter warehouse in Bicester, United Kingdom. The new warehouse will feature technologically advanced solutions, including high-density storage and robotic transfer of product, to enable the efficient distribution of over 30 million units a year across the United Kingdom and export markets. Stock will be moving from Utopia Distribution Services’ current warehouse in Aylesbury, United Kingdom (inherited from physical distributor Cinram, whose assets were acquired by Utopia in 2022) to the new facility over the summer.
Swedish Web3 music company anotherblock has raised €4 million ($4.34 million) in an investment round led by Stride.VC and joined by Swedish House Mafia member Axwell (whose Swedish House Mafia partner, Steve Angello, previously invested in the company). The money will be used to help anotherblock scale globally and make its product available to a wider range of artists, producers and record companies.
Seeker Music has acquired the masters and publishing catalog of Charlotte Caffey — lead guitarist, keyboardist and primary songwriter for The Go-Go’s. Caffey wrote some of the group’s biggest hits, including their breakthrough song, “We Got the Beat,” as well as “Head Over Heels,” “Vacation,” “How Much More” and “Turn To You.” Caffey has also written songs for artists including Keith Urban (“But for the Grace of God”) and her Go-Go’s bandmate Belinda Carlisle, as well as songs for film and TV including the theme song for the Clueless TV series. The deal was brokered by veteran record executives Michael Rosenblatt and David Simone.
300 Entertainment has partnered with Florida-based imprint Remain Solid, founded by manager and executive 100k Track, for a label joint venture. The first artist signed under the deal is Brooklyn-based rapper BreezyLYN, who released the remix to her single, “Bad Bitches” featuring Lola Brooke and Kali, earlier this month.
Songtradr announced a partnership with TikTok around the video-sharing platform’s Commercial Music Library. Under the deal, Songtradr is now a certified “Subscription Sound Partner,” supplying music for the Commercial Music Library, which gives businesses, organizations and creators access to pre-licensed, rights-safe music for organic content and paid advertising.
Music technology companies Tuned Global and Revelator struck a partnership that will allow digital service providers and other Tuned Global customers to enable artists to mint and distribute music releases as NFTs directly on Web2 streaming platforms using Revelator’s Web3 tech. “These NFTs will coexist with traditional streamed music, enabling fans to enjoy digital collectibles and actively engage with token gated content, while providing artists with blockchain-based payment opportunities through smart contracts,” according to a press release announcing the deal. Added Revelator CEO/founder Bruno Guez: “This partnership lets music lovers collect NFTs in fan-friendly ways where they are already experiencing music. Fans won’t need to mess with wallets or special Web3 players, or even leave their favorite music platform. They’ll pay with a credit card. This access and ease will open up new revenue streams for artists, as more fans jump in.”
AI music startup AudioShake announced a $2.7 million seed funding round led by Indicator Ventures, with participation from Precursor Ventures and Side Door Ventures. Also taking part in the round are Metallica-backed Black Squirrel Partners, AJR, Google’s Black Angel Group, peermusic, Audius CEO Roneil Rumburg, S-Curve Records CEO Steve Greenberg and Crush Ventures, the venture arm of Crush Music, among others. Audioshake’s B2B deep learning technology deconstructs audio into stems so that they can be made available for new uses across music, film, dubbing, transcription, synthetic voice and more. The company has worked with departments from all three major labels as well as publishers including Primary Wave, Hipgnosis, Spirit, peermusic, Concord, Downtown and Reservoir.
Unitea, a Miami-based engage-to-earn music platform, has raised a seed round of $7 million led by 1st Class Guernsey, Chaos Capital and Fuel Venture Capital. The funds will be used to further expand the platform’s capabilities within the music industry and beyond. The platform allows users to share music and create content to earn digital tokens, called Karma, that can be redeemed for exclusive rewards including custom digital assets, concert tickets and artist meet-and-greets. The company’s board of directors includes Pitbull and Claude VonStroke.
Freshsound, a self-serve licensing platform for commercially released music, closed a €2 million ($2.17 million) seed funding round that will support the company as it seeks to expand internationally while continuing to grow in the Nordic market. The new investment comes less than a year after the company’s pre-seed funding round worth €1.3 million ($1.41 million). The latest investment round was led by Zenith Venture Capital and Aligned. Founded in 2021 by Stevie Gyasi and Sara Larsson, Freshsound boasts a dynamic pricing model that gives clients instant quotes for any use and the ability to license their music for commercial purposes.
CD Baby and creator copyright protection platform Cosynd have expanded their existing partnership with the integration of Cosynd’s Copyright Registration API into the CD Baby platform, which allows artists to register copyrights and establish legal ownership over their work.
Music, entertainment and technology platform LiveOne struck an exclusive content distribution deal with OTT Studio, a streaming technology platform and connected TV (CTV) app publisher. Under the deal, LiveOne will serve as OTT Studio’s exclusive music streaming provider, delivering LiveOne’s 600 radio stations via OTT’s Music Plus application. The agreement will expand the distribution of LiveOne’s audio and entertainment content to an additional 47 million CTVs in North America via LG’s webOS and Vizio’s SmartCast platforms.
SiriusXM announced a multi-year extension and expansion of their services agreement with Mercedes-Benz, under which the automaker is expected to make the installation of SiriusXM a standard feature on Mercedes-Benz models available in the United States, starting with model year 2024 vehicles. SiriusXM’s “most advanced audio entertainment experience,” SiriusXM with 360L, is also expected to be included in future Mercedes-Benz models, according to a press release.
Lyric licensing and data solutions company LyricFind signed an agreement with GEMA, Germany’s mechanical and performance rights society, in a further expansion of LyricFind’s international footprint.
Duetti, a new music financing startup led by former Tidal COO Lior Tibon and former Apple Music business development executive Christopher Nolte, has closed a $32 million funding round to launch its new service, the company announced Wednesday (May 3). The round includes money from Viola Ventures/Viola Credit, Roc Nation, Untitled and Presight Capital.
The company is aiming to get in on the catalog sales market by providing funding to rising or independent artists in exchange for full catalogs, individual tracks or parts of tracks — then optimizing and growing their returns through marketing and/or social platform promotion. Duetti likens the deals it’s making as akin to the big catalog sales that major artists like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and others have executed in recent years, but for smaller artists — or at least those who have had songs on streaming platforms for two years and racked up at least 500,000 streams within the past 12 months.
Lior Tibon
“In recent years, the trend of legacy A-list musicians selling their entire catalogs has left independent artists out of the equation,” said Tibon, who serves as Duetti’s CEO, in a statement. “Now, artists at all stages of their careers can easily capture the potential of their tracks and catalogs to help them reach the next step of their journey. We are arming artists with the information they need to choose when, and how, to leverage their assets from a position of strength.”
Duetti has been in stealth mode, and during that period it says it has partnered with over 60 artists — including Sylvan LaCue, CVBZ and Croosh — across 100 tracks, with acquisitions totaling as much as $400,000; Duetti’s deals take roughly 30 days to complete on average, according to the company. It now sees an opportunity to open up this funding model to more than 70,000 additional independent artists. The company plans to use the seed funding to expand its staff, onboard more artists and boost the value of the tracks already in its catalog. It’s tapping into a market that includes companies like Sound Royalties, which recently sold to GoDigital, that aim to help artists finance their lives and careers by selling royalty streams and other assets and seeing higher returns in the long run.
“Duetti’s cutting edge technology enables efficient analysis of an artist’s potential for successfully monetizing a catalog or track — we are incredibly excited by the potential of their business model and the new, independent investment class it unlocks,” said Avi Zeevi, fintech investor and co-founder of Viola Ventures, in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Independent artist revenue growth is outpacing the entire industry and their highly scalable model returns revenue uncorrelated to broader market and economic conditions. A win-win for investors and musicians.”
Sony Music Corp. is in the process of helping Bad Bunny manager Noah Assad — the CEO of Latin music label and management company Rimas Entertainment — buy out his partner, Rafael Ricardo Jiménez Dan, a former Venezuelan government official who has a 60% majority stake in the company, sources familiar with the matter tell Billboard.
Rimas — which manages, records and publishes Bad Bunny — also has a label and management roster that includes Arcángel, Eladio Carrión, Jowell & Randy and Tommy Torres. The company was founded in 2014 in Puerto Rico and now has about 100 employees.
According to sources, Sony will participate in a buyout of Jiménez, who has not been involved in running Rimas’ day-to-day operations since 2018. That will result in a reshuffling of the company’s ownership and will likely leave Bad Bunny with an equity stake in the firm— and either Assad, or the combination of Assad and Bad Bunny, with majority ownership.
However the deal is ultimately financed, Sony itself is expected to wind up with a significant minority share in Rimas, which it will assign to The Orchard, its rapidly growing music distribution and artists/label services powerhouse that currently distributes Rimas.
Billboard estimates that Rimas Entertainment — the record label and the management company — has a valuation above $300 million without including the company’s publishing assets, which sources say are not currently being considered as a part of this transaction.
Assad and Jimenez, respectively, also have the same 40–60% ownership stakes in the music publishing assets, Jiménez tells Billboard. The publishing company, which includes some Bad Bunny songs and was launched by Assad, Jiménez and lawyer Carlos Souffront, is also up for sale. The sellers are seeking a $70 million to $75 million valuation for the overall publishing company, those sources add. As on the recorded music side, Assad plans to retain his stake in the song catalog, which means that the Jiménez stake could potentially fetch $42 million to $45 million.
Assessing a valuation for the publishing deal is tricky, sources say, because many of Bad Bunny’s songs are still widely popular, which makes it harder to calculate how much their plays will decay until they level off and become a predictable income stream, likely in a decade or two from now. As it is, the Rimas publishing portfolio —which is currently being administered by Universal Music Publishing Group — has about $5 million to $7.5 million in net publisher share (gross profit after paying songwriter royalties), a level it is expected to maintain over the next few years.
The music publishing portion of Jiménez’s Rimas holdings have been shopped to private equity players, sources say, and there is currently no known buyer. That’s in contrast to the hoped-for sale of the label/management holdings, which appears to have only been offered to Sony. However, sources wonder if Assad has matching rights on the publishing assets, which means that he could also arrange a deal to buy the Jimenez publishing stake if he matches the highest offer.
Jiménez is being represented for the expected publishing sale by Brian Richards, co-founder and managing partner of the investment advisory firm Artisan. On the record label/management side of Rimas, sources say Jiménez is being advised by Mitchell, Silberberg & Krupp partner Joel Schoenfeld, the former general counsel of eMusic and BMG’s senior vp of business affairs before that; and by Colin Finkelstein, the former CFO for EMI Music, who sometimes consults with investors on music assets and also owns and runs a few artist management firms.
Both deals are said to be very complex, and sources say they have been in the works for months — with some wondering whether the deals have been stalled due to friction between the two partners, Jiménez and Assad.
Another looming issue may be how much financial capacity Sony Music Group has to close deals right now. As Sony negotiates the stake in Rimas, it is reportedly also in talks to acquire part — or possibly all — of the Michael Jackson estate in a deal that could carry a valuation of $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
The question is whether Sony’s corporate leadership in Japan has signed off on the funding and the completion of both deals and if the costs involved in the deals might force Sony to choose to between them.
If both deals are completed, sources suggest that they would likely still need to be approved by regulators. Under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, as of Feb. 27, 2023, any merger and/or acquisition that has a transaction value of more than $111 million — or if the contemplated combined entity will have total assets of more than $445 million — must file and seek regulatory approval.
Assad, Jiménez, Sony, Finkelstein, Schoenfeld and Richards either declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Alexei Barrionuevo
LL Cool J‘s Rock the Bells hip-hop platform announced a $15 million Series B raise led by Raine Ventures, Irving Azoff of Iconic Artists Group and Paramount Global, with participation from Amex Ventures, Wildcat Capital Management and Capstar Ventures. Additional investment came from ASK Capital, North Island, AME Cloud Ventures and XO Capital. The funds will be used to scale the business, including by creating more long-form content projects, launching new retail projects, expanding to the European Union, growing the annual Rock the Bells Festival and launching new experiential events. Under the deal, Rock the Bells and Paramount Global have signed a multi-year first-look deal covering feature films and scripted and unscripted content as well as the opportunity to live-stream the 2023 Rock the Bells Festival. Additionally, they will partner on developing co-branded merchandise opportunities. Paramount Global will also provide marketing support for Rock The Bells content, experiences and activations.
ICM Crescendo Music Royalty Fund acquired the master royalty income of a catalog of songs owned by High Society Management, including several by Latin star Anuel AA such as “Sola (Remix)”, “Soldado Y Profeta (Remix)” and “Nacimos Pa Morir” featuring Jory Boy.
Snapchat struck new music licensing deals with UnitedMasters, BUMA/STEMRA, SUISA Digital Licensing AG — which includes the repertoire of SUISA (Switzerland), AKKA/LAA (Latvia), Albautor (Albania), Armauthor (Armenia), Autodia (Greece), COMP (Pakistan), EAÜ (Estonia), GCA (Georgia), LATGA (Lithuania), SOZA (Slovakia), Abramus Digital (Brazil), Soundreef (Italy) — and multiple direct-licensing publishers for its Snapchat Sounds library.
Independent Latin music label The Wave Music Group — founded in 2021 by Angelo Torres and Caleb Calloway — signed a long-term distribution agreement with Capitol Music Group (CMG). The first music to be released under the deal comes from Puerto Rican rapper and songwriter Young Miko, who dropped the first single under the agreement, “Lisa,” in March. CMG will provide The Wave Music Group with a number of services in support of its releases, supplementing the label’s in-house functions.
Reactional Music — which has developed a rules-based music engine that allows any music to be brought into a video game and interact in real time with the game’s visuals, sound and more — closed a pre-Series A funding round led by mobile music games publisher Amanotes and early-stage VC fund Butterfly Ventures. The round was also supported by several angel investors, including former Mediatonic chairman, Red Octane CEO and Take 2 Interactive CEO Kelly Sumner. The funds will be used to deliver the Reactional beta platform and SDK for developers, continue its music licensing operations and scale the Reactional team. Reactional is currently at work on several pilot projects, while the Reactional engine is now being used in a commercially-available game for the Playstation 5 and Playstation VR2; it has also struck multiple music rights agreements, including with Hipgnosis Song Management. The platform is expected to go live this year.
PRS for Music announced a partnership with music rights and metadata management software platform Orfium to expand PRS’s licensing coverage to music users in Africa. Under the deal, Orfium will license the PRS repertoire and provide the underlying technology infrastructure to serve African markets. Coverage provided by Orfium will extend to public performances, radio, cable TV and local and select multi-national online services. The deal will also expand the global reach of PRS’s Major Live Concert Service, a leading royalty collection service for large concerts, making it available for events held throughout Africa. The Orfium partnership will function alongside PRS’s existing agreement with South Africa collecting society SAMRO for its home territories.
SoundExchange announced a new data partnership with music metadata provider Music Story to improve SoundExchange’s creator metadata. The deal is designed to minimize the need for manual claiming and help ensure accuracy in monthly royalty payments. Music Story partner Muso.AI, a verified music credit platform, captures credits, correctly links music creators to their work and spots inconsistencies that impact their rights.
Live events company LiveCo struck a partnership with Park City, Utah-based boutique producing and presenting firm MagicSpace Entertainment to bring the company under the LiveCo umbrella. MagicSpace has launched tours including Simone Biles in the Gold Over America Tour, Rain – A Tribute to the Beatles, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, A Magical Cirque Christmas and Alton Brown Live. LiveCo, which launched at the top of 2023, also boasts partnerships with Icon Concerts, Premier Productions, BASE Entertainment, Rush Concerts, Peachtree Entertainment and Transparent Productions; it also represents talent and productions including Jimmy O. Yang, Criss Angel, Cocomelon Live, Cody Johnson, Jo Koy, Dude Perfect, Zach Bryan, MercyMe, Elevation Worship and Gabriel Iglesias.
Enote, an app that provides a library of interactive sheet music to classical musicians, closed a 10 million euro ($10.97 million) pre-Series A funding round led by Dieter von Holzbrink Ventures (DvH Ventures), the EU’s European Innovation Council (EIC Fund) and the Rudolf Fuchs Family Office. The funds will go toward initiatives that introduce innovations to the app, empower educators and provide more musicians with the opportunity to access the Enote library. There remains an opportunity for angel investors, venture capital funds and family offices to participate in a second closing of the round, which the EIC fund has committed to matching euro for euro.
Web3 company OneOf acquired enterprise rewards and loyalty software company TAP Network, which has developed customized rewards and loyalty solutions for clients including Warner Music Group, Brave and Uber. The acquisition allows for the integration of TAP Network’s loyalty software IP with OneOf’s mass-consumer Web3 technology framework. The resulting Web3-powered tech stack, dubbed OnePlatform, will provide white-labeled turnkey loyalty, commerce and data solutions for enterprise clients in entertainment, media, finance, retail, travel, consumer packaged goods, telecom and more.
SoundCloud and Feature.fm formed a strategic partnership to provide exclusive resources and benefits related to Feature.fm’s marketing tools — including smartlinks and pre-saves — for SoundCloud artists. The benefits, which will become available next month, will include perks and discounts from Feature.fm and provide SoundCloud’s “Next Pro” tier of artists with a free plan and free ad credits, while providing artists in its “Next” tier with discounted pricing. As part of the deal, Feature.fm will introduce a new entry-level pricing plan that will be made available to all SoundCloud artists for the first 90 days.
Turntable LIVE acquired fellow music-centered social platform JQBX. The JQBX brand, domain and community will continue with special features at www.JQBX.fm. The acquisition follows the announcement of Turntable LIVE’s $7 million seed round.
Revelator, which provides digital IP infrastructure to music companies including royalty accounting, distribution and analysis, announced an expansion to Japan under a new partnership with Japanese music tech agency PRTL. Under the deal, Revelator will leverage PRTL head Taishi Fukuyama‘s “expertise to bring its innovative Web2 and Web3 solutions to a market that is experiencing rapid streaming growth and is wildly enthusiastic about NFTs,” according to a press release.
EVEN, a blockchain-enabled platform that allows artists to sell their music directly to fans in exchange for exclusive perks before uploading the music to streaming platforms, announced a $2.2 million funding round led by CSA Partners with participation from gener8tor, VC414, gAngels, Daniel Rotman, Adie Akuffo-Afful, Donte Murry and Ogo.
Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) has reached an agreement to sell its stake in the Tao Group chain of restaurants and nightclubs to global luxury lifestyle company Mohari Hospitality, according to a filing Monday (April 17).
MSGE will sell its 66.9% majority interest in Tao Group Hospitality for about $300 million, according to the filing. The deal, which values Tao Group at $550 million, is expected to close in May.
News of the planned sale comes just days before MSGE is expected to finalize the spin-off of its live entertainment business, a move that will separate the pure-play live music business from the company’s state-of-the-art Sphere venue in Las Vegas, sports television network and hospitality businesses.
The spin-off would have moved Tao Group Hospitality into the parent company, renamed Sphere Entertainment Co., along with the Sphere, the new Las Vegas venue currently under construction, and MSG Networks. The company said Monday that upon the deal’s close, it will “enter into multi-year agreements with Tao Group Hospitality for ongoing consulting, marketing, and support services at Madison Square Garden and Sphere in Las Vegas.”
MSGE bought a majority stake in Tao Group in 2017 and has since expanded it to include Hakkasan, Beauty & Essex and other restaurants for a total of more than 80 locations spread across 24 cities on four continents.
Founded in 2017, Mohari Hospitality is an investment company that owns stakes in the Waldorf Astoria in Miami, the 1 Hotel in Toronto, a luxury sustainability-focused resort in Costa Rica called the Peninsula Papagayo and the Ritz Carlton’s cruise line of custom yachts.
Equity holders in Tao Group Hospitality were advised by Goldman Sachs & Co. and Hughes Hubbard & Reed. Advising Mohari Hospitality were Moelis & Company and Kirkland & Ellis.
Financing and investment company Cutting Edge Media Music acquired the full music catalog of United Kingdom-based media company First Score Music. The acquisition gives Cutting Edge complete master and publishing rights to over 75 film scores, including original music rights to films from Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish‘s Imaginarium Productions. This includes Imaginarium’s upcoming animated version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm as well as its Taika Waititi-directed film Next Goal Wins with a score by Michael Giacchino. The catalog also includes scores by composers such as Carter Burwell, Christophe Beck, Hildur Guðnadóttir, David Newman and Rachel Portman for films including Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Midway and Greenland.
Atlantic Records formed a joint venture with TAG Music, a new record label founded by artist-turned-executive Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship, Midtown). The first releases under the deal include the singles “Nosebleed” from Los Angeles-based singer Sophie Powers (released March 31) and “Red Is My Favorite Color” from emo alt-rock artist Jules Is Dead in April.
China-based streaming service NetEase Cloud Music renewed its deal with independent Asian “Mandopop” label Rock Records to distribute both its back catalog and upcoming releases in China. Under the agreement, NetEase and Rock Records will continue collaborating to promote Rock Records artists and content; the new deal also “extends the strategic cooperation towards more in-depth initiatives on copyright cooperation between the two parties,” according to a press release, including the rights to sublicense Rock Records music for various uses including third-party applications, website background music and smart devices. Founded in 1980, Rock Records is home to popular artists including Tayu Lo, Jonathan Lee and Wakin Chau.
Symphonic announced a partnership with Boston-based music technology company Formless that will see Symphonic integrate Formless’ SHARE Protocol for blockchain technology. The protocol will roll out to a select group of Symphonic clients who express an interest in Web3. Artists using the technology will be able to control access terms to their music, including streaming price, and receive payments instantly while splitting royalties with collaborators and fans.
PayPal and Live Nation unveiled a multi-year partnership naming PayPal as the “preferred payments partner” of Ticketmaster, according to a press release. Under the deal, fans will be able to pay with PayPal, PayPal Pay Later products and Venmo across the Ticketmaster platform. PayPal Braintree will also become Ticketmaster’s primary global payment processor, speeding up the checkout process while giving fans access to event add-ons like merchandise and parking for purchase. The partnership also entails an “expanded global marketing program to drive broad engagement and fan loyalty through experiences and offers,” including by rewarding a limited number of fans who use PayPal and Venmo to pay for festivals like Bonnaroo, BottleRock and Lollapalooza with ticket discounts and “Cashless credits” to those events.
Songtradr has completed its acquisition of U.K. digital music company 7digital, the company announced on Thursday (March 30).
When the deal was first announced on Feb. 8 prior to being finalized, 7digital said it planned to accept a bid worth 19.4 million pounds ($23.4 million), with its shareholders set to receive 0.695 pence ($0.84) per share in cash, a 114% premium over the prior day’s closing price.
Songtradr is a music licensing marketplace and distribution platform that matches rights holders with brands via a searchable database. 7digital offers a range of digital music services for businesses, including licensing, tracking, reporting and paying rights holders. It has integrated with over 300,000 labels and publishers and boasts a catalog of over 80 million tracks.
In a release, Songtradr states that the acquisition “solidifies” it “as a key leader in the business-to-business music industry, establishing the company as the only one-stop music solution for digital platforms and brands worldwide.” Among other benefits, Songtradr says the acquisition will expand its ability “to power user experiences” on digital platforms including social media, lifestyle apps and video games while “extending its reach into new markets” — all thanks to 7digital’s “highly scalable” music delivery platform and “comprehensive” music catalog. 7digital’s list of clients includes global brands like Pinterest, Barry’s and Triller.
In a statement, Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire said the 7digital acquisition will help it achieve its goal “to remove the friction and help deliver scalable solutions for the music industry while simplifying music use for enterprise brands and digital platforms.”
Added 7digital CEO Paul Langworthy, “Together, we will have an unparalleled combination of catalog, technology, and capabilities, allowing us to better serve our current clients and offer new enterprise clients an exceptional range of data, services, and opportunities.”
Since the company’s launch in 2014, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Songtradr has raised over $100 million to build a company focused on solving many of the inefficiencies in music licensing. It acquired AI metadata and music search company Musicube in 2022, music licensing agency Massive Music in 2021 and licensing agency Big Synch Music in 2019. In 2021, Songtradr established a global creative division headed up by industry veteran Amanda Schupf. The company currently has teams in 16 countries.
As announced last month, Langworthy and the rest of 7digital’s senior leadership team will join Songtradr, though interim chairman Mark Foster, CFO Michael Juskiewicz and all nonexecutive directors will step down. Songtradr will also repay 7digital’s £2 million ($2.14 million) revolving credit facility as well as two £500,000 ($536,000) loans. The company will continue operating 7digital’s London office for now.
The acquisition by Songtradr closes out an unstable period for 7digital, which in July 2019 faced the possibility of entering administration — or the U.K. equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy — unless it managed to raise £4.5 million ($5.5 million) in additional funds by the end of that month.