JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum Hipgnosis Buys Motley Crue Song Catalog

Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx sells Song Catalog. Variety.

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Hipgnosis Songs has acquired the music catalog of Motley Crue bassist and main songwriter Nikki Sixx, one of the most successful rock bands of the 1980s.

Hipgnosis have acquired 100% of Sixx’s writer’s share of PRO income and writer’s Sound Exchange royalties for the cataog, which contains 305 songs. Further details were not disclosed.

With hits like “Looks That Kills,” Shout at the Devil,” “Home Sweet Home” and “Girls, Girls, Girls,” the group has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and scored nine Top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart. The band released its debut album “Too Fast for Love” in 1981 and undertook a farewell tour in 2015, but reconsidered and announced a reunion tour for this year, which has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Merck Mercuriadis, Founder of Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited and The Family (Music) Limited, said: “Mötley Crüe were single-handedly responsible for the Los Angeles rock explosion of the 1980s paving the way for everyone that came in their wake and putting rock music back onto Top 40 radio and the pop charts. Nikki was the catalyst and architect of all of that and we are delighted to welcome him to the Hipgnosis family.”

Sixx (real name: Frank Ferranna, second from left above) said:“Merck and his team at Hipgnosis are an artist friendly forward thinking company. Looking to the future I am grateful that they will treat my music with great care and respect.”

Hipgnosis Songs recently released its annual report, which showed its revenues soaring in its first full year of business, climbing to $81 million in the 12 month period ended in March 2020 from around $8.9 million in the preceding period. The firm, which has been on an unprecedented acquisition binge of hit songwriter and producer catalogs — been buying up catalogs by hitmakers ranging from Timbaland and Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart to Jack Antonoff and Jeff Bhasker — began trading on the London Stock Exchange in July of 2018. Between March 2019 and March 2020, the company spent nearly $700 million to acquire 42 catalogs.

In the report, Mercuriadis notes, “When compared with the three major song companies, we have achieved between 7% and 12.5% of their revenue on between 0.5% and 0.9% of their number of songs.” This is a result of the group’s highly selective investments, which he summarizes in the report thus: “All of our songs have a proven track record and we do not speculate on new songs regardless of the past performance of the songwriter, producer or artist. These proven hit Songs produce reliable, predictable and uncorrelated cash flows which are highly investible.”

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Music publishing is where all the money is and has always been. Going from 8.9 million in income to spending nearly a billion on catalogs is clear that very large investors have bought in. Good for those artists, but not helpful to the wider industry.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/pretenders-chrissie-hynde-sells-catalog-055549203.html

Hipgnosis buys Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde's catalog.

Someone with HUGE money is backing this tiny company. I suspect China might be investing. They've bought nearly every iconic building site in the USA that's been on the market plus any high profile real estate or assets they can get their hands on.

I think it was an interview with Quincy Jones where he said the record company kept sending them away with Michael Jackson's Songs, saying those Songs weren't 'strong enough'. I think they got together with other Songwriters, like Paul McCartney, to strengthen them. And Wow! What Songs! "Thriller" with its masterwork video. "Billy Jean", and another great video.
McCartney and Jackson recorded and released "Ebony and Ivory".
In that relationship Jackson consulted with McCartney on what to do with his accumulating wealth. McCartney advised, "Buy publishing."
When The Beatles' Songs came up for sale, since they had lost 'ownership' and control by signing their names to documents without comprehending what they were signing away, McCartney found himself bidding against, and outbid by, Michael Jackson.
A Song can be worth a fortune. It is an 'asset', personal property, "Intellectual Property (IP)" that you 'own' and can pass down to your heirs. A Song can be revived and re-released over the years, with the 'owner' earning Royalties every time.
David Bowie sold bonds for 'ownership' of his Song catalog, which could entitle the bond-buyer to a share of future profits from the 'use' of those Songs.
John Fogerty lost ownership and control of his Songs, the new 'owners' even prohibiting him from releasing anything new that sounded like his work with Creedence Clearwater Revival.
One must learn to protect oneself and one's property if one is "Going Out In Business" or else one may find oneself "Going Out Of Business."