Hipgnosis Songs Fund
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Hipgnosis Songs Fund was a London-listed music rights investment company founded in 2018 by industry executive Merck Mercuriadis. It bought and managed song catalogs, building a portfolio of more than 65,000 songs including works by Shakira, Neil Young, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ed Sheeran and Blondie, raising around $2.2 billion from investors.
02 / Hipgnosis Songs Fund FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Investors lost faith after the shares traded at a wide discount to the stated value of the catalogs: in October 2023, 83.2% of shareholders voted against the fund continuing, rejected a $440 million catalog sale, and ousted the chair. The revolt followed a scrapped dividend after the fund's valuer cut its royalty-income assumptions. A strategic review then drew a bidding war, with Concord outbid by Blackstone, which took the fund private for about $1.57 billion at $1.30 per share in July 2024.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Acquisition
Hipgnosis Songs Fund was acquired.
- Company founded
Hipgnosis Songs Fund was founded.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Over $2B raised to buy music catalogs; shares sink to deep discount
- 02
Oct 2023: 83% vote against continuation, reject $440M sale, oust chair
- 03
Strategic review; bidding war Concord vs Blackstone
- 04
Blackstone takes it private ~$1.57B, July 2024; later rebranded