Justin Bieber Music Catalog Nearing Sale to Hipgnosis in $200M Deal – Billboard

Hipgnosis Songs Capital is in talks to purchase Justin Bieber‘s pursuits in his recorded music and publishing catalogs for greater than $200 million, with the deal prone to shut within the subsequent few days, based on sources. The acquisition would come with Bieber’s largest hits, from “Child” to “Love Your self” and past.

In correspondence with Billboard in mid-November, Hipgnosis founder and chief govt, Merck Mercuriadis, stated the corporate was working to “shut about $500 million in offers between now and mid-December.” Though he didn’t say what the offers had been on the time, the reported Bieber acquisition looks as if a attainable a part of that disclosure. Information of the upcoming deal between Bieber and Hipgnosis was first reported by the Wall Road Journal.

The incoming deal arrives on the finish of a 12 months that noticed a cooldown within the music catalog market. Although main acts like Justin Timberlake (who bought to Hipgnosis for $100 million), Sting (who bought to UMPG for an estimated $360 million), Genesis (who bought a package deal deal to Harmony for round $350 million), David Bowie (whose property bought his publishing catalog to Warner Chappell for $250 million) and extra have closed offers within the final twelve months for blockbuster costs, 2022 has been a markedly quieter 12 months in comparison with the red-hot market of the final half-decade.

“The surroundings has modified totally because the finish of final 12 months — rates of interest are considerably up, foreign money change charges are very completely different — I don’t assume the present market is what it was,” defined Joe Brenner, companion at leisure legislation agency Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, in an interview with Billboard this fall. In a mid-year report back to traders, Mercuriadis additionally admitted this 12 months’s surroundings has confirmed extra “difficult.” To high it off, Brenner added, there are merely fewer high-dollar basic rock catalogs left to amass, as lots of them have already been bought (Pink Floyd being a notable exception).

Catalogs solely a decade or so outdated, like Bieber’s, are sometimes thought of riskier investments than people who have had an extended runway to show they’ll stand the check of time, and, as a consequence, they have a tendency to fetch decrease sums. Nevertheless, these youthful tune collections are sometimes the place Hipgnosis chooses to take a position its capital. Between the Timberlake catalog buy this 12 months and different acquisitions like Jack Antonoff, Mark Ronson, Timbaland and extra, the corporate has guess massive on shopping for trendy classics to flesh out its over 65,000-song portfolio, which additionally consists of songs by extra seasoned icons like Journey, Leonard Cohen and Barry Manilow.

Hipgnosis Songs Capital is an funding car established by Hipgnosis in partnership with Blackstone. The New York-based non-public fairness agency pledged $1 billion to additional funding in music IP and likewise took a majority stake. Hipgnosis Songs Capital is taken into account separate from the London-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the acquirer of music publishing and recording rights. Moreover, the Mercuriadis-founded firm consists of Hipgnosis Songs Administration, which manages the publicly traded firm’s catalog.

Representatives for Hipgnosis and Bieber haven’t responded to Billboard’s requests for remark.