In tune with the times

What's a tune worth? Not as much as previously anticipated for Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the Guernsey-registered company that launched in 2018 on the promise of the song as an unbeatable financial asset.

- Russell Brown

 

"Sustainable earnings, uncorrelated to global capital markets, with sources of income from across the spectrum of music consumption," promises the company on its website.

In the past six years, Hipgnosis has bought part or all of the catalogues of Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, John Coltrane, Christine McVie, Blondie, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey and hundreds of other writers and producers. Unlike a traditional music publisher, which typically pays an advance for the right to collect royalties on behalf of the owner and clips the ticket for doing so, Hipgnosis owns those songs.

The idea is that the composer gets a lump sum (Neil Young pocketed US$150 million for half his rights in 2021) and the company and its investors then steadily collect the revenue stream from the musical works.