Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd. (HSFL) was founded by veteran artist manager Merck Mercuriadis.
HSFL is a Guernsey registered investment company established to offer investors a pure-play exposure to songs and associated musical intellectual property rights.
The company has raised a total of over £1.05 billion (gross equity capital) through its Initial Public Offering on the London Stock Exchange on July 11, 2018, and subsequent issues in April 2019, August 2019, October 2019, July 2020 and September 2020.
In September 2019, Hipgnosis transferred its entire issued share capital to the Premium listing segment of the Official List of the FCA and to the London Stock Exchange’s Premium segment of the Main Market, and in March 2020, became a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
The company has acquired a number of song catalogs since its IPO in 2018. Most recently, on November 13, 2020 Hipgnosis Songs Fund acquired the catalog of funk legend Rick James, including a 50% stake in James’ publishing catalog (across both publisher and writer’s share), as well as a 50% stake of the artist’s recorded music masters. In addition, Hipgnosis acquired a 50% stake in James’ neighboring rights income, collected via SoundExchange.
On November 2, 2020 Hipgnosis confirmed that it acquired over 33,000 songs / cuts in songs from Kobalt Music Copyrights S.à.r.l, for a total consideration of $322.9 million.
Prior to that, it was announced in October 2020 that L.A Reid had sold 100% of the publishing interests and writer’s share of income in his music catalog, comprising 162 songs, to Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
On September 10 Hipgnosis announced the acquisition of Los Angeles-based Big Deal Music Group, bringing 4,400 copyrights into Hipgnosis – including cuts on hits by the likes of Shawn Mendes, Panic! At The Disco and One Direction.
The deal also saw Hipgnosis acquire Big Deal Music Group’s US-based publishing admin business, Words & Music.
On September 8, the UK-based company announced the appointment of respected music industry execs Ted Cockle and Amy Thomson.
Cockle, the former head of Universal’s biggest label in the UK – Virgin EMI (now EMI Records) – was named President of Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Joining him was Amy Thomson – formerly manager of Swedish House Mafia and DJ Snake, and a marketing advisor to Kanye West – who was named Chief Catalogue Officer at Hipgnosis.
Elsewhere, Hipgnosis has acquired stakes in song catalogs created by the likes of Giorgio Tuinfort (David Guetta), Teddy Geiger (Shawn Mendes), The-Dream (Justin Bieber, Rihanna), Poo Bear (Chris Brown, Justin Bieber), Itaal Shur (Santana), Bernard Edwards (Chic), Tricky Stewart (Rihanna, Beyoncé), TMS (Jess Glynne, Little Mix), The Chainsmokers and Benny Blanco.
Hipgnosis has also bought up rights to No.1 songs such as Yeah by Usher, Check On It by Beyoncé, We Belong Together by Mariah Carey and Be Without You by Mary J. Blige, and snapped up a music catalog from American songwriter, producer and singer Brittany Hazzard, aka Starrah.
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