KKR & Co. Inc. and BMG have acquired the songwriting catalog of
John Legend.
The deal, disclosed in a regulatory submitting, closed last tumble and illustrates how pink-scorching the market place for songs investments has come to be. Mr. Legend, at 47 decades old—still an energetic songwriter, recording artist and performer—is more youthful and earlier in his career than several of his peers who have been inking deals to help set up their legacies and dollars in on their life’s work.
The R&B crooner marketed his publishing copyrights and the legal rights to get royalties from tunes he penned from 2004 by way of early 2021. BMG Legal rights Management and KKR each and every acquired a 50% stake in the catalog. BMG, which has been administering Mr. Legend’s operate because it purchased Cherry Lane Songs Publishing in 2010, also struck a deal to administer his long run compositions, according to a particular person common with the make a difference. BMG, equally a history label and publisher, is a subsidiary of Germany’s Bertelsmann SE.
A single upshot of KKR and BMG’s investment in Mr. Legend’s operate thus far is that his future releases and excursions are probable to create continued consideration and streaming of his catalog. The offer encompasses Mr. Legend’s acclaimed 2004 debut album “Get Lifted” as perfectly as hits like “All of Me” and “Love Me Now.”
KKR last March teamed up with BMG to shell out at minimum $1 billion on songs copyrights. That commitment arrived amid a broader go into music past year for KKR, which previous January struck a $200 million offer for a greater part stake in Ryan Tedder’s catalog of hits including tunes from
Beyoncé,
Adele, Stevie Surprise and Mr. Tedder’s band, OneRepublic. (Mr. Tedder, now 42 yrs previous, was a different relatively young entrant to the industry.) In Oct, KKR expended $1.1 billion on financial commitment advisory firm Kobalt Funds Ltd.’s KMR Tunes Royalties II portfolio, which incorporates far more than 62,000 copyrights across music genres.
With each other, KKR and BMG previous thirty day period invested in Texas blues-rock trio ZZ Top’s publishing catalog and recording songs royalties in a deal valued around $50 million, in accordance to folks common with the deal.
Fueled by potent need from legacy publishing outfits and economic players alike, as effectively as small fascination costs and tax incentives, an onslaught of artists have been striking specials for their songs rights, together with Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan,
Neil Younger
and Bruce Springsteen.
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Appeared in the January 8, 2022, print edition as ‘John Legend Sells His Music Catalog.’