UK-born Cutting Edge Media Music (CEMM) has secured $100 million in financing from a group of banks led by Pinnacle Financial Partners.
Pinnacle Financial Partners, based in Nashville, manages nearly $2 billion in entertainment-related accounts with clients including artists, songwriters, international music label and publishing businesses, film and TV studios, and a slew of sports properties and other entities.
Cutting Edge’s capital raise follows last year’s news that it had partnered with London-based investment firm Blantyre Capital to commit $125 million to acquire film and TV music rights. Cutting Edge says that the funds from last year’s round “has been fully deployed”.
The new funds, announced today (February 14), will bolster CEMM’s cash reserves as it invests in music for film, television, video games and more.
CEMM is part of the wider Cutting Edge Group, a financing and investment company that also operates other units that provide music publishing, record label and other music services to feature films, TV shows, musical theatre productions and video games.
Led by founder and CEO Philip Moross, the group is known for providing music services to TV shows like Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The King’s Speech, Moonlight, Drive, Star Trek: Discovery, Fury, John Wick, Sicario, Whiplash, Hacksaw Ridge, and The Walking Dead.
Cutting Edge also provides music to broadway shows like Matilda, The Color Purple, Anastasia, and My Fair Lady; and triple-A video games such as: Sunset Overdrive, Assassins Creed Valhalla, Red Dead Redemption and Cyberpunk 2077.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn Of Ragnarok won the first Grammy Award For Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games/Interactive Media at the recent 2023 GRAMMYs.
Commenting on the financing led by Pinnacle, Moross noted that “CEMM has recently deployed over $100 million on music publishing rights owned by composers who write music for film and TV.”
“I look forward to our partnership with Pinnacle to help give the next wave of film and TV composers the opportunity to monetize their catalogues.”
Philip Moross, Cutting Edge Group
“The value of music assets has exploded in the past five years,” added Moross. “I look forward to our partnership with Pinnacle to help give the next wave of film and TV composers the opportunity to monetize their catalogues.”
Andy Moats, the Director of music, sports and entertainment for Pinnacle Financial Partners, said their investment in Cutting Edge is in support of the latter’s latest venture.
“Their deep understanding of the film/TV composer universe and artist-friendly approach aligns with our mission to honor and support creative communities throughout the world,” Moats added.
“It’s been a privilege to work closely with so many world class composers on this initiative. We continue to be excited about this space and we are eager to make this new round of financing available to the composer community,” said Tim Hegarty, head of merger and acquisitions for Cutting Edge Group.
Cutting Edge’s other business units include music publisher Cutting Edge Music Publishing, film, TV & video game soundtracks division Lakeshore Records, musical theatre soundtracks unit Broadway Records, licensing platform Music.Film and custom music house White Stork.
The company also owns wellness label Myndstream, home to artists who have collectively amassed billions of streams across Spotify, Apply, Pandora and Amazon, Cutting Edge says.
In 2018, Cutting Edge-led investor group Film Score Records sold movie soundtrack and score label Varèse Sarabande to Concord Music. The deal saw Cutting Edge becoming a client of Concord Music, which started providing global distribution, marketing, and label services to Cutting Edge.
Music Business Worldwide