Blog: music publishers

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Songwriters take the stage: a new playbook for a new era

Tatiana Cirisano

31 Jul 2024

songwriters

songwriting income

Music publishing

In the 2021 report, “ Rebalancing the song economy ”, MIDiA introduced the idea of songs as mini industries. In the streaming era, songs are constantly revived and reimagined — and so long as you own the publishing, it does not matter if the version that becomes popular is the original, a cove...

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Schubert Music Is the Latest Publisher to Push Into Recordings

Mark Mulligan

30 Jan 2020

music publishers

music publishing M+A

Record labels

Schubert Music Europe, the holding company of Schubert Music Publishing, today announced a deal with Sony’s independent label distribution division The Orchard. Under the deal, Schubert will distribute ten new record labels.

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How Music Publishers Are Driving a Full Stack Revolution

Mark Mulligan

14 Oct 2019

anthem

avl

AWAL

Music publishing catalogues are gaining momentum fast as an asset class for institutional investments, with transactions ranging from large catalogue mergers and acquisitions (M&A) through to investment vehicles for songwriters’ shares such as the Hipgnosis Fund and Royalty Exchange.

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Songwriters Aren’t Getting Paid Enough and Here’s Why

Mark Mulligan

10 Sep 2019

cmos

Drake

Google

Music Business Worldwide recently ran a story on how Apple has proposed a standard streaming rate for songwriters, with Google and Spotify apparently resistant. Of course, Apple can afford to run Apple Music at a loss and has a strategic imperative for making it more difficult for Spotify to be prof...

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Music Sync: A Market Ripe for Change

Mark Mulligan

3 May 2019

Florence and the machine

Game of Thrones

music publishers

Florence and the Machine’s performance of Jenny of Oldstones, which appeared over the closing credits of the April 21st HBO’s Game Of Thrones episode, has registered the most Shazams in 24 hours ever.

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Here’s How Spotify Can Fix Its Songwriter Woes (Hint: It’s All About Pricing)

Mark Mulligan

11 Mar 2019

music publishers

Netflix

Songwriter royalties have always been a pain point for streaming, especially in the US where statutory rates determine much of how songwriters get paid. The current debate over Spotify, Amazon, Pandora and Google challenging the Copyright Royalty Board’s proposed 44% increase illustrates jus...

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The Outlook for Music Catalogue: Streaming Changes Everything

Mark Mulligan

29 Jun 2018

catalogue

catalogue m&a

catalogue valuations

Friday’s news that catalogue acquisition business Hipgnosis Songs Fund is set to float on the London Stock Exchange, having already raised around $260 million, reflects a booming market for music catalogues.

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