#TheWeeklyRoundUp – 27.01.23

Justin Bieber Sells Music Rights to Blackstone-Backed Fund Hipgnosis (Wall Street Journal)

The deal includes more than 290 of the pop star’s songs including ‘Love Yourself’ and ‘Ghost’

Pop star Justin Bieber has sold his music rights to Blackstone Inc.-backed; Hipgnosis Songs Capital. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the deal had an expected value of around $200 million.

The deal includes the Canadian singer’s publishing and recorded music catalog, according to Hipgnosis and representatives for Mr. Bieber. That covers more than 290 titles released before the end of 2021. Universal Music Group UMG; will retain ownership of Mr. Bieber’s master recordings, or recorded music copyrights, in perpetuity, according to Hipgnosis.

“The impact of Justin Bieber on global culture over the last 14 years has truly been remarkable,” said Merck Mercuriadis, chief executive of Hipgnosis. “This acquisition ranks among the biggest deals ever made for an artist under the age of 70.” The “Love Yourself” singer has sold over 150 million records worldwide. All of Mr. Bieber’s six official studio albums have been certified platinum, selling at least 1 million units, or have gone multiplatinum.

Blackstone committed $1 billion to launch Hipgnosis Songs Capital with Hipgnosis Song Management Ltd. in 2021. Hipgnosis Songs Capital purchased the song catalog rights of Justin Timberlake in 2022 in a deal valued just above $100 million.

The catalog sale comes after Mr. Bieber has repeatedly postponed his Justice World Tour. He took a break from touring in June after disclosing he had Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can lead to face paralysis, hearing loss, a rash and other symptoms. He said the syndrome, which is caused by a virus, had paralyzed half his face so that he couldn’t blink one eye, smile with half his mouth or move a nostril.

Mr. Bieber restarted his concert tour in July but stopped again in September due to exhaustion.

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More money for musicians as Samro collects R500m, thanks to lockdown suspension (City Press)

The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) says the suspension of lockdown regulations has seen an uptick in royalties collected in the previous year. For the last fiscal year, Samro collected R515 million in licence and royalty income, which was R38 million more than the previous year.   

In a statement released on Tuesday, the organisation said it had distributed R253 million, as compared to R235.2 million in 2021. Samro chairperson Nicholas Maweni said improved revenues were driven by fewer lockdowns and a more efficient royalty collection process.  

Maweni stated: 

During the period, the organisation also saw an increase in the total amount available for distribution. This increased from R338.7m in 2021 to R452.3m in 2022. The increase, as noted above, is directly attributable to improved revenue and reduced costs, which ultimately translates into more earnings being distributed to the organisation’s members.

Maweni added that Samro’s costs were also significantly lower this year, declining by 8.1% or R12.8 million.

“Its cost-to-income ratio decreased from 29.3% in 2021 to 25.9% in 2022, which is also significantly down from 40% four years ago. This is mainly due to tight cost control and more efficient processes.” Maweni said despite operating in a tough economic environment, with inflation at a 12-year high of 7.6%, Samro managed to overcome the spectre of escalating bad debts with improved collections in the 2022 financial year.  

“As Samro continues to build revenue towards its ambitious goal of attaining R1 billion by 2025, we will continue to look at extracting more revenue from digital platforms, government departments and city municipalities, schools and previously unlicensed sectors, such as the transport industry, while continuing to improve the broadcast, general licensing and live industries collections,” added Maweni  

Maweni said that Samro is looking forward to tirelessly collecting more royalties on behalf of its members.  

He mentioned: 

While Samro’s members bring music notes to life, the organisation remains committed to doing its utmost to ensure that the vestiges of the Covid-19 pandemic do not thwart it from achieving its aims and initiatives of supporting local musicians and strengthening the local industry.

“Samro’s composers, authors, lyricists and publishers can rest assured that Samro is a proactive and innovative organisation that is always looking for new ways to protect them.”