State Champ Radio GoldState Music
Trending on Billboard
Last week, GoldState Music founder and managing partner Charles Goldstuck gathered his investors along with a collection of music’s most brilliant minds for “Conversations in Music,” a three-day conference about the future of the business.
Goldstuck has been convening exclusive thought-leadership meetings for decades in his many roles: he’s the founder of The Sanctuary at Albany, a state-of-the-art recording studio and music academy in the Bahamas; the executive chairman of TouchTunes Interactive Networks, and a major-label veteran who ran business operations for BMG’s music labels and co-founded J Records with Clive Davis, building it into the RCA Music Group.
Related
But the South African philanthropist said that this year’s event — which he hosted at the luxurious Pier Sixty-Six resort in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida — marked his first event of such scale and urgency, reflecting the speed at which industry dynamics are changing.
Each expert-moderated conversation was packed with insight, and reflected Goldstuck’s own keen interest in the intersection of AI and music — he is currently funding the AI & African Music initiative at his alma mater, Witz University in Johannesburg, to empower creatives to use AI to preserve, teach or co-create African musical traditions and sounds, and recently published a paper arguing that music companies ought to negotiate deals with AI companies to set precedent before courts and lawmakers weigh in.
Among the conference highlights: Water & Music’s AI analyst and music producer Yung Spielberg demonstrated how to make songs using Suno. MIT professors showcased the cutting-edge music technology their top students are building. DAYA, a GoldState artist who shot to fame with her feature on Chainsmokers’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” revealed how she’s navigating the modern industry and shared her new music. Dr. Tamay Aykut, founder and CEO of Sureel, broke down the possibilities for how to determine which rights holders should get credit for music produced with AI models trained on their works.
We asked Goldstuck for his five top takeaways from the invite-only affair – here’s what he pointed to.
Publishers are gaining leverage. The deal between Kobalt and ElevenLabs establishes a 50-50 split between publishers and recorded-music rights holders, a big improvement from streaming and sales, which have paid out lower rates to publishers. This sets a new precedent for future generative AI licensing deals, with publishers now in a position to secure stronger economic outcomes as the landscape evolves. Industry surveys estimate that more than half of younger creators already use AI tools in their workflows, suggesting that generative AI could make songwriters more productive.
Laurent Hubert (Left), CEO of Kobalt Music, Mary Megan Peer (Center), CEO of peermusic, and Kristin Robinson (Right), Senior Correspondent at Billboard – at the GoldState Conversations in Music Conference
Courtesy of GoldState Conversations in Music Conference
Music catalog deal volume is at a record high. Buyers include both established music companies and financial investors. There have been no significant defaults or financial problems across these transactions in recent years, fueling the highest level of investor confidence seen in the sector since the Napster era. The market is competitive, but investors are employing more sophisticated knowledge and due diligence thanks to increased transparency from the digital music ecosystem. And yet, there are only two major players in the catalog valuation space. Is there room for more?
The indies are rising. Independent music companies claim nearly half the global market share and the majority of new releases in 2025. Improved creator tools, the proliferation of distribution options, and the ease of accessing audiences across more than 700 digital and social platforms worldwide are powering the expansion of independent distributors like Symphonic Distribution, Too Lost, Create Music Group, and Empire, all of whom are posting double-digit annual growth. Financing for independent creators is getting more sophisticated too, with leading distro platforms now offering artists advances based on real-time consumption data.
Ghazi Shami (Left), Founder and CEO of EMPIRE, and Priyanka Khimani (Right), Founding Partner of Khimani & Associates – at the GoldState Conversations in Music Conference
Courtesy of GoldState Conversations in Music Conference
Investing in China and India is about to get easier. Historically, Western artists and rightsholders lacked clarity on Chinese consumption, but Luminate’s new licensing partnership with Tencent Music promises new transparency from the world’s fifth-largest music market. Luminate is also ramping up its Indian market data coverage, as Billboard launches in India.
AI detection and attribution technologies will be key. Only a handful of formal licenses have been announced for generative AI platforms and music, but commercial and licensing momentum is building. Landmark agreements include those between Kobalt and ElevenLabs, Merlin and ElevenLabs, and the Universal Music Group with Udio. As Goldstuck wrote in his paper, Past Precedent, Future Proof: Towards a New Commercial and Legal Framework for AI-Generated Music, generative AI platforms and rightsholders should move towards collaboration through negotiated settlements, not litigation, so as to pave the way for a more standardized commercial licensing regime for AI-generated music. Accurate detection will help monitor the use of tracks for training, while new attribution systems will be critical for properly crediting and compensating rights holders and creators for outputs. Platforms like Deezer, which offers detection, and Sureel, which specializes in attribution, are showing early promise in moving the industry towards proactive AI music tracing and licensing, but widespread adoption will require a lot more work.
Charles Goldstuck (Left), Recording Artist Daya (Center), and David Conway (Right), President of Hard 8 Working Group and Daya’s Manager – at the GoldState Conversations in Music Conference
Courtesy of GoldState Conversations in Music Conference
Next week, Harbourview Equity founder and CEO Sherrese Clarke Soares brings her investors to Miami for another series of panel conversations, as the investor-conference circuit continues.
GoldState Music has raised $500 million in financing, the private investment firm announced on Thursday. Although specific details of the funding breakdown were not disclosed, the capital infusion consists of both equity and debt, and is described in a press release as a “structured capital facility… as well as separately raised leverage,” with Northleaf Capital Partners and Ares Management leading the deal.
“Our new relationship with Northleaf and Ares marks the next step in the evolution of our music investing strategy,” GoldState founder and managing partner Charles Goldstuck, said in a statement. “This additional capital will enable us to further accelerate our ability to capitalize on increasing demand for music and build a diversified portfolio of music assets across artists and genres. As leading institutional investors, Northleaf and Ares bring critical experience that will support GoldState’s continued growth and differentiation to the benefit of our artists, investors and other stakeholders.”
Northleaf is a well-known investor in the music industry, having previously financed $500 million through Lyric Capital Group for Spirit Music Group in 2021 and $75 million for Duetti last year.
Trending on Billboard
“Led by Charles, GoldState is well-positioned to execute on a disciplined music acquisition strategy, and Northleaf is pleased to support the Company and its exceptional team,” said CJ Wei, managing director, Private Credit at Northleaf. “Northleaf’s investment in GoldState directly aligns with our asset-based specialty finance strategy, which is designed to provide our investors with diversified and low correlation exposure while delivering strong cash yield.”
On the other hand, this appears to be the first music asset investment for Ares, or at least the first one they’ve publicly disclosed.
“Charles and GoldState Music bring a bold, visionary approach to music rights investment that seeks to empower artists,” Ares Management managing director Jeevan Sagoo said in a statement. “We are excited to collaborate with them and provide Ares’ deep sector and investment experience as they advance their long-term growth and value creation strategy.”
GoldState Music has acquired catalogs from two boutique music asset investors, Catchpoint Partners and AMR Songs. These catalogs feature notable tracks such as Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights,” Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy” and Panic! At The Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” Additionally, they include portions of songs and recordings by artists like Brantley Gilbert, Smash Mouth, and Avril Lavigne. The acquisition also encompasses John Sebastian’s writer share of all his compositions with the Lovin’ Spoonful, including “Summer In The City,” “Daydream” and “Do You Believe In Magic,” as well as rights from his solo career, including “Welcome Back.”
The GoldState website also lists other financial backers, including Flexpoint Ford, Pinnacle Financial Partners and Regions. Prior to founding GoldState, Goldstuck has had a long career in the music industry, having held senior executive positions at various major labels before becoming president and COO of the Bertelsmann Music Group.
Charles Goldstuck‘s GoldState Music is quietly bulking up thanks to two back-to-back catalog acquisitions in the last six months.
According to sources, GoldState has laid out some $200 million to acquire portfolios of music publishing and recorded music royalty income streams from two boutique music asset investment firms: CatchPoint Rights Partners in a deal that sources say closed in the last month; and AMR Songs, whose catalog GoldState acquired earlier this year.
The CatchPoint portfolio includes stakes in songs like Kanye West‘s “Flashing Lights,” Sheryl Crow‘s “If It Makes You Happy” and Panic! At The Disco‘s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” along with slices of songs and/or recordings by the likes of Brantley Gilbert, Smash Mouth, Avril Lavigne and others.
Meanwhile, the AMR catalog includes John Sebastian’s writer’s share of all of his The Lovin’ Spoonful songs, including “Summer In the City,” “Daydream” and “Do You Believe In Magic,” as well as all rights from Sebastian’s solo catalog, which includes “Welcome Back.” AMR has also made investments in SOJA’s catalog, from the band’s inception through 2020 — covering music publishing and artist royalties and various master recordings — as well as stakes in songs by the likes of Macy Gray and Ivan Neville.
While the above list includes artist names, the two firms have also invested in co-writer shares of songs or producer points on artist royalties — and their websites don’t always specify, when citing song and recording investments, which assets have been acquired.
Trending on Billboard
All told, the two firm’s catalogs each had about $7 million in annual income, or a combined $14 million, in a combination of music assets that split about 50/50 active and passive income, sources say. (Passive income would be the writer’s share of a song owned and controlled by a publisher or an artist’s royalty income stream from a master recording owned by a label. Active income would be ownership of the song publishing and/or the master recordings.)
Goldstuck has a long history in the music industry, having held senior executive positions at such labels as Arista Records, Capitol Records, J Records and RCA before becoming president/COO of the Bertelsmann Music Group. More recently, he was co-chairman of Hitco Entertainment, which was sold to Concord. Moreover, Goldstuck is the founder of The Sanctuary At Albany, which is described as a state-of-the-art recording studio in the Bahamas, and is also currently the executive chairman of TouchTunes Interactive Networks, the digital jukebox company with over 80,000 locations, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The GoldState Music website says Goldstuck founded the GoldState investment firm in 2022 and lists Flexpoint Ford, Pinnacle Financial Partners and Regions as its financial backers. The website also lists TouchTunes, The Sanctuary at Albany and Create Music as part of the GoldState Music growth portfolio. In June, GoldState Music participated in Flexpoint Ford’s $165 million funding round to Create Music Group, although the amount it invested was undisclosed.
Prior to making its latest catalog acquisitions, Goldstuck began by acquiring music intellectual property rights on its own, including by buying — based on the GoldState website — the rights of music by recording artists such as EDM DJ/artist Alan Walker, Christian group Anberlin, pop singer Daya, punk band Dead Kennedys and legendary soul singer Sam Moore, among others. The company’s website doesn’t specify which rights of those artists it has acquired.
In moving on to bigger acquisitions like its recent CatchPoint portfolio and AMR Songs deals, Goldstate so far appears to be eschewing iconic songs and catalogs that trade for frothy prices and multiples and instead has chosen to buy the catalogs of two firms, which separately on their own pursued niche genres and name artists — but not superstars — whose music rights assets produce steady income streams that trade at more reasonable price points.
CatchPoint was founded in 2020 by former BMI executive Rich Conlon, Wall Street executive Patrick Riordon and PJ Miklus, a business executive with a background in finance and the music industry. Sources suggest that CatchPoint sold its portfolio of songs to GoldState as a proof-of-concept to potential investors. Sources add that the firm didn’t sell all of the music assets in its catalog and has funding for further music asset acquisitions.
Meanwhile, AMR was founded by Tamara Conniff, a former music publishing executive at such firms as Roc Nation and Artist Publishing Group, and Wall Street private equity executive Steve Reinstadtler. According to the GoldState website, Conniff and some of her team have joined the GoldState staff.
Executives at GoldState, Catchpoint and AMR either didn’t return phone calls seeking comment or declined to comment on the transactions.
-
Pages
