Publishing
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Hipgnosis Songs Fund said on Monday it would not pay its investors a dividend in October because of new, lower projections for the amount of revenue it can expect from the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board for certain streaming royalties, causing its stock to dip more than 10%.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s board said it had to withdraw the proposed interim dividend of 1.1325 pence per share, which it had announced to shareholders on Sept. 21, after its independent portfolio valuer, Citrin Cooperman, “materially reduced” Hipgnosis’ projected payments from CRB III, causing the board to cut its expectations for CRB III retroactive accrual to $9.9 million, from $21.7 million. Hipgnosis’s board said it “expects to declare and pay future dividends as targeted,” subject to discussions with its lenders.
The announcement comes 10 days ahead of the London-listed music royalty trust’s first shareholder continuation vote, where investors are asked to vote on whether they want to keep the investment trust going or liquidate the fund.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund made history in the music industry when it went public in July 2018 as the first publicly listed company offering investors the chance to earn returns from the royalties on famous songs like “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This,” “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Neil Young’s catalog and more.
But the company is facing some of its first, serious growing pains as the high interest-rate environment has made acquiring more catalogs more expensive and drawn investors’ interest away from alternative investments like music rights to high-yielding bonds. Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s share price is down more than 25% over the past year and was trading at 66.26 British pence ($0.90 USD) as of 8:50 a.m. New York time.
The board has announced a number of initiatives since September that appear to be aimed at addressing investors’ concerns ahead of the Oct. 26 continuation vote, including the proposed sale of $440 million worth of catalogs from its portfolio to the private side of Hipgnosis — Hipgnosis Songs Capital, which is backed by private equity goliath Blackstone. The board said it would use the proceeds to buy back up to $180 million of its own stock, pay down $250 million of its revolving debt and to introduce new, lower advisory fees to be paid to Hipgnosis Song Management Limited.
The board has said it hopes the proposal, which must be approved by shareholders, would help to “re-rate” the company’s share price in the eyes of investors and the broader market.
The board said it learned of the reduction in expected payments around Sept. 30, after Citirn Cooperman “reduced its expectations of industry-wide retroactive payments in relation to the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board’s decision in relation to royalties payable to songwriters for the period covering 2018-2022 (“CRB III“) for its valuation of the Company’s portfolio.”
Primary Wave has signed an administration agreement with the estate of singer and “Soul Man” songwriter Isaac Hayes. As part of the deal, they will administer various publishing interests for Hayes. They will also be granted the opportunity to market the musician’s name, image and likeness.
Universal Music Publishing U.K. has signed electronic artist and producer Fred again.. to a worldwide publishing deal. He started his career as a producer but gained wide recognition for his artist project during the height of the pandemic after releasing his debut album Actual Life (April 14-December 17 2020). Over the course of his career, he has worked with Ed Sheeran, Brian Eno, Travis Scott, Skrillex, Young Thug, J Balvin and Burna Boy.
Artist and songwriter RAYE has renewed her publishing agreement with Warner Chappell Music, following a breakthrough year. Her debut album My 21st Century Blues was released in February and peaked at No. 2 on the U.K. Official Albums chart and its lead single “Escapism.” (featuring 070 Shake) went all the way to No. 1 in the U.K. She first signed to the publisher in 2016, and her extension covers both her catalog and future works.
All Clear Music and Fuji Music Group have acquired a 100% stake in the writer’s share of publishing for songwriter Will Jennings. The deal covers his entire catalog, which spans legendary artists Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, Roy Orbison, B.B. King, Celine Dion, and Tim McGraw. His biggest hits include “My Heart Will Go On,” “Tears in Heaven,” “Higher Love” and “Up Where We Belong.”
Raleigh Music Publishing has acquired the song catalog of musical theater composer and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. For his evergreen songs, Lerner has been a past recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s biggest honor. The deal includes 100% of Lerner’s share of US royalties for the following musicals, excluding writer performance royalties and grand rights: My Fair Lady, Camelot, Gigi, Brigadoon, The Day Before Spring, Love Life, On a Clear Day, Paint Your Wagon, What’s Up.
Concord Music Publishing has extended its publishing agreement with Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard. Over the course of his three decade career, he has written with the Spice Girls, U2, Sia, 5 Seconds of Summer, and Ellie Goulding. One of his longest running relationships is with Kylie Minogue — whom he has been writing with for twenty years and counting. His relationship with Concord began in 2020.
Seeker Music has acquired the publishing catalog of Plested, a top U.K. artist and songwriter who has written songs like “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi and “Leave Before You Love Me” by Marshmello, Jonas Brothers. In addition, he also has cuts with Kygo, OneRepublic, Niall Horan, The Chainsmokers, Anne-Marie, James Arthur and more.
Warner Chappell Music and Tape Room Music have renewed their global publishing agreement with country songwriter Hunter Phelps. Additionally, WCM is also acquiring the hitmaker’s catalog, which includes “wait in the truck” by HARDY ft. Lainey Wilson, “Thinking ‘Bout You” by Dustin Lynch and Mackenzie Porter, and “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” by Chase Rice and Florida Georgia Line.
Position Music has signed Chloe Copoloff to a worldwide publishing deal. The 25-year-old songwriter has worked with Salem Ilese, Alan Walker, Andi, Skydxddy, Sundial, Francis Karel, Holden Miller, and Cloudy June and has forthcoming cuts with VIVIZ, Ashley Sienna, Dia Frampton, Culture Code, Meg DeAngelis, Francis Karel.
Concord Music Publishing has wrapped its 11th annual sync camp in Nashville, where 90 songwriters worked together on songs for synchronization in films, tv shows, commercials and more. Since its inception, the Concord sync camp has garnered over 1500 placements in various forms of visual media, including placements in “All Rise,” “Big Shot,” “The Witcher,” “The Spanish Princess,” and “East New York.”
Outer Voice Music Publishing (OVMP) has signed a global administration deal with Downtown Music Publishing. Founded as a branch of the Outer Voice Company, a label launched by JAM and Philly in association with Converse, OVMP was created to sign and represent the work of South Asia songwriters across the diaspora.
BMI has released its annual report for its fiscal year and, for the first time ever, it hardly contains any financial information.
Such information as how much it collected or distributed in the recently completed year is not revealed in the annual report, even though BMI has historically revealed detailed financial information every year. The report also doesn’t show how much collection and distribution amounts changed from the prior year’s $1.573 billion and $1.471 billion, respectively.
The only information indicating BMI’s financial performance in the year is an observation by BMI president and CEO Mike O’Neill that “every distribution we issued in our last fiscal year was higher than the corresponding one from the previous year.” No further specifics were provided.
The only numbers in the entire annual report that give any indication of how much activity BMI tracked in the year was a note that the performance rights organization processed 2.61 trillion performances, while its membership grew 7% to 1.4 million affiliates, and that it licenses and collects on behalf of 22.4 million works. Dollar amounts only appear once in the 24-page report, when O’Neill states in the opening note that BMI’s November distribution is forecast to be $400 million — which he labeled another record “that would make BMI the first ever PRO to ever distribute this high an amount in a single quarter.” The November quarter is in its current fiscal year, and not a part of the completed year covered in the annual report.
Last October, BMI announced it was switching from a not-for-profit model to a for-profit one. Now, in an opening note to this latest report, O’Neill disclosed the organization’s goal is to distribute 85% of the licensing revenue it collects to songwriters and publishers. The other 15% of collections, he wrote, will cover overhead and allow BMI to achieve a modest profit margin, noting that expenses typically comprise about 10% of revenue. In recent years, BMI’s distribution has been about $90% of revenue.
If BMI creates new M&A opportunities, however, or enters new businesses or offers expanded services, O’Neill said that BMI “will look to take a higher margin on any revenue generated, though always with the goal of sharing that new growth with our affiliates.” In other words, for those business, BMI may not limit itself to a 5% profit margin.
O’Neill also noted that “if BMI decides to seek outside capital or borrow money to invest in new services and opportunities, any repayments will come out of our retained profits and not distributions.”
In the current fiscal year, O’Neill reported that under the new business model BMI’s February distribution was its largest ever, up 6% over the previous year. That was then surpassed by the May distribution, which was up 15% over the corresponding year-earlier period. O’Neill predicted that the next two distributions for the remaining calendar year will follow that trend. For the full calendar year, distributions are projected to be 11% above calendar 2023, the report noted.
Going forward, O’Neill said BMI will announce percentage increases, but apparently will continue to withhold all other financial information.
Seemingly responding to immense pressure from the songwriter community and music publishers who have publicly expressed their unhappiness about BMI’s switch to profitability and its evasion of the many questions they asked, after disclosing the 85% distribution goal, O’Neill’s opening note repeats many of the thoughts he has already shared through open letters on the issue. “We changed our business model last year to invest in our company and position BMI for continued success in our rapidly evolving industry,” he wrote. “Our mission remains the same, to serve our songwriters, composers and publishers and continue to grow our overall distributions as BMI has done each year that I have been CEO. In order to continue this trajectory, we need to think more commercially, explore new sources of revenue and invest in our platforms to improve the quality of service we provide to you. I’m pleased to say that we have already made great progress on delivering these goals.”
He also reiterated that BMI changed its business model to better position the company for success in a rapidly evolving industry. “Our mission remains the same, to serve our songwriters, composers and publishers and continue to grow our overall distributions as BMI has done each year that I have been CEO,” O’Neill wrote. “In order to continue this trajectory, we need to think more commercially, explore new sources of revenue and invest in our platforms to improve the quality of service we provide to you.”
While BMI can accomplish its plans and goals on its own, O’Neill wrote, “We also recognize the opportunity to substantially accelerate our growth by partnering with a like-minded, growth-oriented investor with a successful history of building businesses. Of course, that partner would need to share our vision that driving value for our affiliates goes hand-in-hand with growing our business and building a stronger BMI.”
As Billboard previously reported, BMI is in an exclusive period with New Mountain Capital in a deal to sell the PRO — which is currently owned by radio and television broadcasters — at a $1.7 billion valuation. The valuation, however, sources say, is under downward pressure as negotiations continue.
While stating nothing has yet been signed, O’Neill wrote that the for-profit business model and the strategy outlined “will hold true for BMI whether or not we move forward with a sale.” In other words, BMI will continue to be a for-profit business, regardless of whether it sells or not.
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has announced a worldwide publishing agreement with Sabrina Carpenter, Billboard can announce exclusively. The news comes in between international stadium dates for Carpenter, who is opening for Taylor Swift‘s Eras tour through the remainder of the year. “I am so thrilled to have joined the UMPG family and to be […]
Quincy Jones said it best,” explains Nile Rodgers: “A producer of a record is like the director of a film.” From his first production credits on tracks by Luther Vandross, Sister Sledge and Diana Ross to his more recent work with Beyoncé, Daft Punk and Coldplay, Rodgers is one of the rare producers who bridges the gap between the classic understanding of a record producer and today’s digital music-maker.
In the 20th century, Rodgers and his contemporaries recorded songs to lumbering rolls of tape, bringing the visions of artists and songwriters to life with their ornamentation, arrangement and technical skill. While that is still true for some producers, the trade has changed dramatically. Around the turn of the millennium, increasingly powerful DIY recording tools and the piracy-inflicted bust of the music business drove recording from fancy studios and into musicians’ homes — shifts that democratized who could be viewed as a producer and blurred the lines between the processes of songwriting and recording. How producers are compensated has also evolved, with greater distinctions for payment by genre, widely varying upfront fees and greater possibilities to earn publishing income than ever.
Producer Fees
The most reliable form of income for producers: a sum owed for their work before the song comes out. Fees tend to start around $15,000 to do a track for a major-label-affiliated pop or R&B/hip-hop artist; a superstar-level producer might charge up to $75,000 (or higher), but $30,000 to $40,000 is considered a good range for one who is well-established and working with a major-label act.
When producers work across an entire album of songs, it’s common to reduce per-track rates. “It might be $30,000 for the first three songs, $20,000 for the second two and $10,000 for the last song,” says Lucas Keller, founder of producer management firm Milk & Honey.
These fees are paid half upfront and half upon the delivery of a record that the label deems “commercially satisfactory.” While that first half is a producer’s to keep, the second is an advance against master royalties earned from the song. In today’s streaming economy, however, many tracks don’t recoup their fees.
Independent artists and/or those with little-to-no recording budget sometimes get more creative in paying producers what they are owed. Instead of a fee, “a lot of producers are getting 50% of the master monies, either in perpetuity or until the artist makes the producer’s fee back,” says Audrey Benoualid, partner at Myman Greenspan. Producers can also receive a fee under the aforementioned $15,000 for their work.
Points
The percentage of master royalties producers receive for their work. Earning from two to five percentage points of a record is common today, starting at two points for a newcomer and four to five for a well-established, in-demand producer. This amount is subtracted from the act’s percentage share of the recording; labels aren’t expected to cede any of their share to compensate a producer.
In rare cases, a superstar talent may command six to eight points: Rodgers and his manager, Hipgnosis founder and CEO Merck Mercuriadis, confirm that, on average, Rodgers earns six points, but every song is a unique negotiation. As Keller explains, things can get more complicated when two producers are involved: “Let’s say two sizable producers want four points each. We likely won’t get to take eight all together, so what about we try to split six points down the middle?”
Publishing
Because modern musicians often write and record as they go, the line between songwriter and producer is blurrier than ever. Many creatives that are now primarily classified as producers are also part of the songwriting process — and these multihyphenates earn publishing in addition to fees and points.
“Back in the day, when people talked about what a songwriter did, it was the guy who wrote melody, lyrics and chords. Today, if you come up with the beat, like many producers do, you can also be credited as a songwriter,” Mercuriadis says.
This is especially true in hip-hop. Michael Sukin, a top music attorney who has worked in the business since the 1970s, credits the genre’s emergence as a big part of redefining what a producer does. Timmy Haehl, senior director of publishing at Big Machine’s Los Angeles office, says, “In hip-hop, publishing is sometimes split down the middle: 50% for the top line, 50% for the track.” (In pop and other genres, there isn’t a standard amount of publishing a producer-songwriter can expect; that share of the composition is negotiated on a case-by-case basis.)
Extra Earnings
Some producers can pocket extra income through neighboring rights — performance royalties earned on the master side of income in many countries outside the United States. This, however, “has to be for a qualified record or qualified person,” Benoualid says. “You can’t be a U.S. citizen, unless you record in London and the studio is credited on the album — then you qualify for neighboring rights there.”
Producers in the United States qualify to earn a similar (but more limited) royalty from their masters playing on digital radio stations like SiriusXM, Pandora and other noninteractive digital transmissions. This is paid by SoundExchange, but producers aren’t entitled to this income unless the artists they worked with tell SoundExchange to pay the producers part of their royalty directly.
Nowadays, veteran hit-makers like Dr. Luke and Max Martin may also sign protégés to production deals or joint ventures with publishers to earn additional income, allowing them to, as Keller puts it, “amass a huge catalog with real enterprise value.” The younger producers, in exchange for part of their monies, in turn get introductions to, Haehl says, “people in [the veteran hit-makers’] network [and] special opportunities with artists.”
This story originally appeared in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Reservoir Media has signed a publishing deal with Latin songwriter and producer Rudy Perez, the company tells Billboard. According to Reservoir, the deal includes the acquisition of Perez’s catalog as well as a publishing deal for his future works. Throughout his career, Perez has collaborated with artists such as Christina Aguilera, Julio Iglesias, Luis Miguel […]
As listeners continue to dissect Drake’s new album For All the Dogs, English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys are calling out the MC for interpolating their 1986 song “West End Girls” on “All the Parties” without proper credit or permission. The lyrics in question come when Drake sings, “And it’s 6, our town a dead end world/ […]
Anthem Entertainment, an independent music company, has announced major changes to its senior leadership in both the publishing and recorded music divisions of the company. Jason Klein and Sal Fazzari are now both permanently instated as the company’s CEO and CFO, respectively, after serving in those roles as interims since early 2023. Previous to becoming […]
On July 19, Songtrust sent an email — part update, part apology — to the 350,000 songwriters who use the publishing administration company to collect their songwriting royalties. Songtrust’s message pointed to friction in this process: “slower registration timelines” for songs, which in turn would slow the flow of income, plus a “slower response rate” for writers who believed they were missing money or had other questions.
The slow-down had a few causes, wrote Downtown Music Publishing president Emily Stephenson, including “new leadership,” a new “organizational structure,” and the implementation of Know Your Customer-style registration and payment processes to combat “increased fraud in the music industry.” (Downtown Music Holdings owns Songtrust.) “We recognize that these changes have caused frustration,” she added.
Four former Songtrust employees believe these delays have their roots in plans the company put into motion before this year. The ex-employees describe Songtrust as a “pioneering” organization that did something no company managed to do before: Offer professional-level publishing administration services to small, independent songwriters. “Before Songtrust,” Stephenson tells Billboard, “there was really no way for them to collect mechanical royalties.”
The global publishing system was developed over decades to serve the needs of several thousand writers, not several hundred thousand. “The problem with music publishing,” according to one former employee, “is that scaling is nearly impossible because it’s kind of like an archaic, dark art.”
So as music creation exploded and Songtrust was “trying to sign so many people” starting at the end of 2019 and into 2020, a second former employee explains, “the technology couldn’t keep up with the volume.”
At times, former employees say, that volume — of both new songwriters and new compositions — simply grew faster than the company could handle. (Songtrust is almost certainly not the only organization that has had trouble keeping up with the surge in music creation.) “Making the promise to help the little guys and then not following through on the best technology and best employees and resources — that’s where they f—ed up,” adds a third former employee. “That’s just not a feasible business model.” (Half a dozen former employees spoke in total, all on the condition of anonymity for fear of alienating former colleagues.)
Downtown Music executives disagree. “As the music industry grew, Songtrust grew, and we’re evolving to better serve independent songwriters,” Stephenson says. In a post-interview email, Songtrust executives added that despite “temporary delays in responding to writer inquiries,” the company “has continued to process and pay out royalties accurately and on time to all clients who have submitted accurate tax and payment information.” Multiple songwriters who spoke to Billboard about payment difficulties would take issue with that statement.
“All Songwriters Deserve Publishing Administration”
Traditional music publishing companies focus on just a slice of the world’s songwriters — the top earners. One publishing administration executive says it’s not even worth it for his organization to work with “the bottom 80%” of clients because the cost of doing so would exceed the revenue collected.
Songtrust launched in 2011 with the belief, as Stephenson puts it, “that all songwriters deserve a publishing administration solution.” The company has paid out more than $130 million in royalties so far, according to Downtown Music Holdings president Pieter van Rijn, and 2023 payouts are on pace for “another record year.”
To collect publishing royalties, most songwriters either sign with a publisher or a publishing administrator. Otherwise, it’s possible to register songs with both a performance rights organization (PRO) and a mechanical rights organization, but Songtrust facilitates what would otherwise be a complex, time-consuming process for a one-time fee of $100 per writer, plus 15% of the royalties it collects.
In many cases, that may not amount to much; although some independent songwriters earn enough publishing income to live on, many earn next to nothing. And while there may be less money in this part of the market, the administrative work can be just as complicated, if not moreso. “It is a laborious task to onboard and disseminate music publishing information, particularly with DIY artists who are disadvantaged because they don’t have the knowledge base to understand the questions you’re even asking,” says Jeff Price, founder of another publishing administration company, Word Collections.
So it’s not surprising that former Songtrust employees say writers often make mistakes when registering their songs — claiming 100% ownership of a co-write, for example. Also, since it was relatively easy to sign up for Songtrust’s services, “if someone wants to register fraudulent things, they have the tools,” explains one former employee.
Fraud is a concern across the publishing sector. “If you do not register your songs with a PRO, someone else will within a few months, almost guaranteed,” according to one label founder who also oversees a publishing operation for the acts he signs. “Artists don’t know what publishing is to begin with, and there’s a lot of confusion and disinformation, [creating] a perfect recipe for fraud. This problem is only getting worse, especially for international artists finding success for the first time in the global marketplace.”
In the case of Songtrust, a former employee says that fraud on the platform — such as users registering songs they didn’t write — “creates distrust” with some of the societies charged with collecting royalties around the world. “That was happening to a big extent,” the former employee continues.
There were also times, former Songtrusters say, that the societies simply didn’t have the technology to keep up with the number of songwriters it was representing — and that some of the societies focused their resources on the big writers and publishers who generate more revenue. “At scale, issues of bandwidth and efficiency are always a challenge when you have software-based rights administration,” a veteran rights administration executive says.
Songtrust is in “daily communication with our partners at the collecting societies,” Stephenson says. “We maintain a very positive relationship with them and we’re constantly looking with them to improve the way we can support songwriters.”
In a post-interview email, Songtrust executives added that “the fact that [publishing administration] is a complex business does not change our belief that it is a worthwhile, meaningful service” for the long tail of songwriters.
“There Are Always Issues”
At the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, former employees say Songtrust amped up its efforts to sign more songwriters, which taxed the company’s internal systems. (Around the same time, Downtown Music also went on a buying spree, acquiring the distributor CD Baby in March 2019 and the tech and services company Fuga in January 2020.)
One former employee says that the company “really put their money into marketing.” The mindset, according to this person, was “let’s make us as shiny and inviting as possible on the front end, but we’re not going to fix any of the backend technology.”
In another former employee’s view, Songtrust was “not prioritizing actually doing the job that we’re supposed to be doing” — registering and paying songwriters. A third former employee says simply, “if you invite too many people to your house, it’s gonna fall apart.”
Stephenson rejects the idea that the company was too focused on growth. Downtown Music executives also pushed back on former employees’ accounts of technical troubles. “Technology was not the issue” for Songtrust, van Rijn contends. “Based on the input of societies, we did improve our KYC [know your customer] and registration and data processes,” he notes. “Part of that is technical. Part of that is operations.” Van Rijn also points out that the $130 million Songtrust has paid out to date is money that “otherwise may not have found its way to the songwriter community.”
The fact that small, independent songwriters have the means to collect royalties is fairly new; the publishing business wasn’t built for a world in which anyone can write a song on an app, upload it right away, and immediately start earning money around the world. Some amount of friction is inevitable when so many songwriters need to be integrated into the intricate, infamously opaque global music publishing system.
“When you have outcomes that you don’t like as a customer, or even as a partner, it’s easy to talk about incompetence,” says the veteran rights administration executive. “The reality is that these are the outcomes based on the way rights administration happens in the world.”
Some of the challenges faced by Songtrust are “endemic” in publishing, says Price, the Word Collections founder. The administration executive agrees: “Whether you’re a big company or a small one, there are always issues. It’s just that you’re going to get way more issues the bigger you are.”
Warner Chappell Music recently wrapped a Las Vegas-based songwriting camp, featuring 300 songwriters, artists and producers from around the world. The annual event was held in partnership with YouTube Music, Warner Records, Atlantic Records, and RCA Records, along with other label sponsors and included artists like Chlöe, Bebe Rexha, Yng Lvcus, P2J, The Proof, Lydia Night, Murda Beatz, Tay Keith, Amy Allen, Ian Kirkpatrick, Nova Wav, Benson Boone, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock.
Primary Wave Music has acquired the publishing and writer’s share of P.F. Sloan‘s catalog, as well as the late-singer’s master royalty income. Sloan wrote, performed, and produced for artists across all genres of music — from Barry McGuire to Herman’s Hermits to the Mamas and the Papas. Hits like “Eve of Destruction,” “A Must To Avoid,” “Secret Agent Man,” and “You Baby” were included in the deal.
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Primary Wave Music has acquired a stake in the works of singer-songwriter Eddie Rabbitt. With a dozen #1 country hits, including “I Love A Rainy Night” and “Drivin’ My Life Away” Primary Wave’s vp of business & legal affairs, Lexi Todd, says the Grammy-nominated talent “left a lasting impression in the country music community and beyond.”
Multimedia Music has acquired STX‘s music library. Called Millennium Media, the collection includes titles like The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “London Has Fallen,” “Angel Has Fallen,” “Hitman Wife’s Bodyguard,” “Hellboy,” “The Outpost,” “Mechanic: Resurrection,” “Rambo: Last Blood,” “Blackbird,” and “The Expendables 4,” and more.
Position Music has signed BRIT-nominated producer and songwriter Joe Kearns to a worldwide publishing deal. A consistent collaborator of Ellie Goulding and cuts with Lukas Graham, Henry Moodie, Zara Larsson, IVE, Seeb, and MONSTA X, Kearns says he’s “very excited to get to work and make lots of records” with Position.
MusicBird has acquired the catalog of Greek-Swedish songwriter and producer Alexander “Alex P” Papaconstantinou. Included in the deal are Alex’s writer and publisher’s share of songs like “I Like How It Feels” by Enrique Iglesias, “C’est La Vie” by Khaled, “Live It Up” by Jennifer Lopez, “Boys Will Be Boys” by Paulina Rubio, and “Whip It” by Nicki Minaj.
Joie Manda’s Platinum Grammy Publishing has forged a new partnership with Photo Finish Publishing. Though Photo Finish, which is best known as a record label, has had previous publishing ventures with Warner Chappell and UMPG that were coterminous with their respective label deals, Atlantic and UMG, together with Manda Photo Finish Publishing is launching anew. Under the deal, Photo Finish with sign songwriters and producers and are “thrilled to be working with artists, writers, producers from a different perspective, other than the label.”
Warner Chappell Music, The Core Entertainment and Bailey Zimmerman have signed Dipper to a global publishing deal. A rising country singer-songwriter, Zimmerman calls Dipper a “raw talent” that he is “psyched” to work with.
Concord Music Publishing has signed country artist Clayton Mullen to an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement, including his full catalog and future works.