Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we make certain you caught the 5 greatest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their revenue and cut back their touring prices.
The continued battle between Harmony and Blackstone for Hipgnosis Songs Fund‘s belongings has been a breathtakingly fast-moving story ever since Harmony made a $1.4 billion all-cash provide for Hipgnosis final week.
Inside days, funding big Blackstone made a $1.5 billion provide of its personal, and Harmony fired again with an up to date $1.51 billion provide. On Thursday (April 25), Blackstone responded with a remark to the markets and HSF shareholders.
One other fast-moving story this week concerned the US’s new divest-or-ban regulation geared toward TikTok, which might have a significant impression on the music enterprise.
President Joe Biden signed the invoice into regulation a day after the Senate voted to approve it. Since then, information stories have tried to foretell how mother or father firm ByteDance will reply, with one report saying it could promote TikTok’s US operations, however with out the algorithm, whereas one other acknowledged the corporate would relatively shut down its US operations than promote.
We additionally received a good bit of information on the state of the music trade this week, not the least of which was the RIAA‘s Latin Music Report, exhibiting Latin recorded music revenues clocking a 16% YoY bounce within the US, to $1.4 billion.
Spotify, in the meantime, reported its highest-ever quarterly working revenue in Q1, coming in at $168 million, as paying subscriber numbers elevated by 3 million quarter-on-quarter, to 239 million. The ensuing (although short-lived) spike in Spotify’s inventory worth gave CEO Daniel Ek the proper alternative to promote 400,000 items of inventory.
Lastly, France-headquartered Consider reported a 15.9% YoY bounce in quarterly income, to $250 million. The corporate famous a few of that progress got here from worth hikes at music streaming providers.
On Wednesday (April 24), we discovered of the most recent chapter within the takeover saga surrounding UK-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
Harmony launched a USD $1.511 billion bid for the corporate’s belongings, at $1.25 per share. That bid very barely topped a latest $1.50 billion takeover proposal from Blackstone, which valued HSF at $1.24 per share.
Harmony, then, is again within the driving seat of the battle to purchase Hipgnosis Songs Fund… for now.
On Thursday (April 25), Blackstone issued a terse-but-fascinating remark to the markets, and particularly to HSF shareholders, within the wake of Harmony’s new provide.
It reads partially: “Blackstone strongly advises Hipgnosis shareholders to take no motion and is contemplating its choices. An extra announcement shall be made in the end…”
On Wednesday (April 24), President Joe Biden signed into regulation a invoice that requires TikTok’s mother or father – China-headquartered tech big ByteDance – to divest the app’s enterprise within the US, or face a ban available in the market, the place it counts round 170 million customers.
Citing sources, The Data reported on Thursday (April 25) that TikTok’s mother or father firm “is internally exploring eventualities” to promote the app’s US enterprise with out its highly effective suggestion algorithm, which powers its ‘For You’ feed.
ByteDance denied The Data’s report through an announcement printed on media platform Toutiao.
Later within the day on Thursday, Reuters reported that TikTok’s mother or father “would like” to shut the app down within the US if it’s unable to efficiently problem the laws within the courts…
Spotify noticed its international Premium Subscriber base develop to 239 million paying customers in Q1 – and achieved its biggest-ever quarterly revenue within the three months to finish of March.
In Q1, Spotify’s Premium / subscriber revenues grew 21% YoY at fixed forex to €3.247 billion ($3.525bn) and was pushed, in line with SPOT, by its subscriber progress and a Premium ARPU improve to €4.55 ($4.94) – up 7% YoY at fixed forex.
By way of profitability, Spotify posted an working revenue of €168 million ($182.41m), which it famous in its investor presentation was “a brand new quarterly excessive” and mirrored “decrease personnel and associated prices and advertising and marketing spend”.
Spotify noticed its shares soar following its earnings report, giving Ek the proper alternative to promote 400,000 items of Spotify inventory, which he did this week, for $118.8 million…
Latin music continues to be one of many file trade’s greatest success tales.
Gross revenues generated by Latin music in the USA surpassed $1 billion for the second consecutive yr in 2023, reaching $1.4 billion.
That’s in line with the Recording Business Affiliation of America (RIAA), which printed its year-end Latin Music Report on Tuesday (April 23) for the world’s largest recorded music market.
The report reveals that on a retail foundation (cash spent on streaming subscriptions, in addition to bodily and digital music), Latin music revenues grew 16% YoY within the US in 2023, outpacing the general market…
Paris-headquartered music firm Consider has printed its monetary outcomes for Q1 2024 (three months to finish of March).
The corporate generated revenues of €230.3 million in Q1, which converts to USD $250 million on the common quarterly trade price printed by the European Central Financial institution.
In line with Consider‘s submitting, issued on Wednesday (April 24), the corporate’s quarterly revenues grew by €31.7 million, from €198.6 million in Q1 2023, reflecting a rise of 15.9% YoY.
Consider stated on Wednesday that “wholesome paid streaming progress continued” in Q1, “uplifted by a number of DSPs’ worth will increase…”
