Sign up here for MIDiA’s Masterclass webinar on catalogue investment, this Thursday June 26, 2025, with Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano. In the second quarter of 2025, a range of catalogue acquisition deals have broken the typical mould: Sony acquired Hipgnosis Songs Group (now Recognition), and its Japan division acquired full rights to Spookiz animation franchise Create Music Group acquired K7! and Monstercat, and struck a JV with EZMNY Records Exceleration acquired Cooking Vinyl Concord acquired Broadway Licensing Global Pophouse acquired Swedish House Mafia’s label Axtone Reservoir launched PopIndia and made its first acquisition in Musicraft Chord Music Partners acquired Morgan Wallen’s label Big Loud for $200m Warner music acquired Zach Bryan’s catalog for $350m DJ Khaled struck a catalog and JV deal with Influence Media Taylor Swift got her masters back There is a clear theme with these deals – most are for labels or publishers rather than individuals.
Meta has announced that it will be rolling out ads in WhatsApp’s ‘updates’ tab. This marks a move to monetise what has, up until now, been a platform with not so impressive revenue to report. A major issue for WhatsApp is that, as a direct messaging platform, it has been very difficult to monetise.
At MIDiA, we have started critically reassessing the use of the term‘ Global South’ , a phrase entrenched in industry and geopolitical discourse but increasingly unfit for purpose in today’s complex entertainment landscape.
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