Hipgnosis Songs Fund has acquired a catalog of 17,242 songs from Grammy Award-winning producer, mixer and engineer, Andy Wallace, including 100% of his Producer, Mixer and Performance royalties.
Wallace, who is credited on albums with over 120 million sales worldwide, has collaborated with some of the biggest artists of all time including Aerosmith, Biffy Clyro, Blink-182, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Jeff Buckley, Kasabian, Linkin Park, Nirvana, Paul McCartney, Prince, Rage Against the Machine, Run D.M.C., Rush, Slayer, Sonic Youth, Stereophonics, System Of A Down and White Zombie.
Today’s news follows Hipgnosis’ acquisition last week of 105 songs from Grammy-winner Andrew Watt in an eight-figure deal.
Hipgnosis hasn’t disclosed what it paid for Wallace’s songs, but in a note to investors obtained by MBW, the company has today (May 13) revealed the annual revenue of the catalog in each of the previous three years.
According to the filing (see below), Wallace’s catalog generated $711,000 in 2018, $784,000 in 2019 and $874,000 last year. That all works out to a mean yearly average over the three years of $789,666.
MBW can therefore be reasonably confident in estimating that Hipgnosis paid upwards of $11 million for Andy Wallace’s catalog.
(This is because the company has previously confirmed that, up to September 2020, it paid an average multiple of 14.76X historic annual income for its acquired portfolio of rights.)
Our usual disclaimer: this figure is an MBW estimate, and has not been verified by Hipgnosis.
The filing also reveals that in 2020, 75% of revenue from Wallace’s catalog was generated from streaming, while 9% came from performance royalties.
The catalog includes 78 No.1s and 339 Top 10s.
Wallace has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards, including “Album of the Year” for Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, “Best Dance Recording” for LCD Soundsystem’s Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, “Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical” for Fuel’s Natural Selection, Sheryl Crow’s C’mon, C’mon, and Rage Against The Machine’s Rage Against The Machine, and for both “Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical” and “Album of the Year” for Sheryl Crow’s The Globe Sessions, winning the former.
Andy Wallace is represented by Mark Beaven and Andy Kipnes at Advanced Alternative Media, Inc.
“IT’S FANTASTIC TO WELCOME HIM TO THE HIPGNOSIS FAMILY.”
Merck Mercuriadis, Founder of The Family (Music) Limited and Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, said: “Andy has shaped the sound of great records for almost 40 years now and from seminal albums such as Nirvana’s Nevermind to Jeff Buckley’s iconic Grace and through landmark albums for Coldplay, Foo Fighters et al, he has had an award winning career that has defined what rock music sounds like.
“It’s fantastic to welcome him to the Hipgnosis family.”
“I AM DELIGHTED TO ESTABLISH THIS ARRANGEMENT WITH HIPGNOSIS AND MERCK MERCURIADIS WITH WHOM I’VE HAD A LONG AND FRUITFUL RELATIONSHIP.”
ANDY WALLACE
Andy Wallace said: “The records that I have worked on and the incredible artists that I have had the opportunity to work with throughout my career are very dear to me.
“I am extremely pleased and honored that so many people have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, this music.
“I am delighted to establish this arrangement with Hipgnosis and Merck Mercuriadis with whom I’ve had a long and fruitful relationship, and I’m fully confident that this substantial body of my work will be in the best of hands moving forward.”
“ANDY WALLACE’S WORK AND SOUND DEFINED THE SPIRIT OF AN ERA. HIS ADEPTLY-BALANCED, ORGANIC, MINIMAL-OUTBOARD BASED SOUND WAS 180 DEGREES FROM THE HIGHLY PRODUCED SOUNDS BEFORE HIM AND INFLUENCED THE SOUNDS AND ATTITUDES OF GENERATIONS TO FOLLOW.”
MARK BEAVEN
Mark Beaven said: “Andy Wallace’s work and sound defined the spirit of an era. His adeptly-balanced, organic, minimal-outboard based sound was 180 degrees from the highly produced sounds before him and influenced the sounds and attitudes of generations to follow.
“It was amazing to often witness artists sit and hear a mix for the first time and just cry, sharing no one has ever understood them like that. “No changes.”
“Andy built quite a proud heritage and body of masterworks, telling a pivotal story of musical evolution. That Hipgnosis, a company led by the inimitable Merck Mercuriadis, a man Wallace knows well, has worked with throughout his career, and whom himself embodies the spirit of rock, should become the caretaker of his creations, is the perfect hand-off and the beginning of a proper new chapter in their heritage.”
Wallace started his career in the 1980s and in 1986, landed his first global hit, mixing and engineering Run D.M.C. and Aerosmith’s Walk This Way.
The song reached No.4 of the Billboard Hot 100 and has been streamed nearly 150 million times.
Since this breakthrough, Wallace has been credited on albums including Nirvana’s diamond certified Nevermind, which, having sold over 30 million copies worldwide, is one of the bestselling albums of all time. He is also credited on the album’s lead single Smells Like Teen Spirit which, since topping the charts around the world in 1991, has been streamed over 900m times on Spotify.
He is also credited on Rage Against the Machine and Evil Empire by Rage Against the Machine which are both certified 3x platinum in the US; Jeff Buckley’s US platinum certified album Grace; Foo Fighter’s US and UK platinum certified There Is Nothing Left to Lose, Coldplay’s Grammy Award winning album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.
Other albums Wallace is credited on include Biffy Clyro’s Only Revolutions, Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, which has sold 27 million copies and its follow up Meteora (16m copies); and System of a Down’s multi-platinum certified albums Toxicity, Steal This Album! and their dual albums Mezmerize and Hypnotise; Stereophonics’ 2001 UK No.1 album Just Enough Education to Perform and Blink-182, by Blink-182, which has sold 7 million copies worldwide and includes the hit singles I Miss You (over 500 million streams) and Feeling This (over 150 million streams).Music Business Worldwide
The best of MBW, plus the most important music biz stories on the web. Delivered for FREE, direct to your inbox each day.
