Tencent’s bid for            of Universal Music Group has set a new high-water mark for what risks becoming an overheated music rights mergers and acquisitions (M&A) sector. However, investment appetite remains strong and catalogue supply constrained, so there will be plenty more activity before the inevitable contraction. This inflow of capital has far wider implications for the music business however, not least the way in which newly-enriched music publishing companies are using it to reverse into the recordings business and expand across value chains. The renaissance of music publishing catalogue is now funding a full-stack music company revolution.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report:             Alarm Music, Anthem, AdRev, AVL, AWAL, Big Machine, BMG Music Rights, Bosshouse Music, CDbaby, the Church of England, Compact Media, Concord, Create Music Group, DashGo, Domino, Downtown Music Publishing, Fintage House, Glassnote, Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Hitco, Imagem Music,            Music, Jingle Punks, Kobalt, the Jackson Estate, Level, Ninja Tune, ole, the Orchard, Pandora, Peer Music Primary Wave, Q+A, Reservoir Media, Round Hill, Royalty Exchange, SiriusXM, Songtrust, Sony/ATV, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Group, Soundrop, Spotify, Tencent Music Entertainment, TikTok, Universal Music, Universal Music Publishing, Vivendi, Warner Music, Warner Chappell, WARP, Zync