Hipgnosis Song Fund's revenues were up 66% to $138.4 million during fiscal year 2020-2021

By Emmanuel Legrand

London-listed music asset management company Hipgnosis Song Fund has posted revenues of $138.4 million for the 12 months leading to March 31, 2021, up 66% year-over-year. This includes revenue from catalogue acquisitions made during the year with right to income of $22.7 million. 

  Streaming was the main source of income with 32% of the total, or $43.6m, followed by Performance (29%), Mechanicals (17%), Sync (15%), Other Income (5%) and Digital (3%). Hipgnosis said in a filing that performance revenues have been affected by the pandemic but synchronisation income "grew significantly in the second half of the year."    

  Sync revenues were boosted by the strengthening of Hipgnosis team, in particular with the appointment of the new Song Management team, led by Ted Cockle and Amy Thomson, and the appointment of former BMG Head Of Sync Tom Stingemore in the UK, former BMG Global Head Of Sync Patrick Joest in Europe and former Universal Sync Director Joe Maggini in the US.   

Opportunities to grow sync income    

  "Growing synchronisation income in a year when advertising was down and film and TV productions were halted is a testament to the work performed by the new Song Management team and highlights the substantial opportunity to further grow income from our Catalogues which have often been neglected by publishers," said Hipgnosis in a filing.

  During the year, Hipgnosis acquired 84 new catalogues, for an aggregate purchase price of $1.06bn. In total the company owns 64,555 songs across 138 catalogues, 3,738 of which have held No.1 positions in global charts. The catalogue has been valued at $2.21bn. 

  Commented Merck Mercuriadis, Founder of Hipgnosis Songs Fund and its investment adviser The Family (Music), "2020 / 2021 has been another remarkable year for Hipgnosis. At a point in time when the explosion of streaming has transformed music from a discretionary consumer purchase to a utility purchase and new heights of consumption we have acquired amongst the most important songwriter, artist and producer catalogues of all time."

A 41% return on investment

  Added Mercuriadis: "Our goals when we listed three years ago were to: 1. Establish Songs as an asset class. 2. Use the leverage of our fund and the great songs in our catalogue to be a catalyst to change where the songwriter sits in the economic equation for the benefit of the songwriting community and our shareholders. 3. To replace the broken traditional publishing model with Song Management and add value."

  He continued: "Having given our shareholders a 41% total return since inception, grown our NAV by more than 11% across this fiscal year, having advocated for songwriters at the highest level including the DCMS hearings taking place in Parliament and having increased our sync income from 9% to 15%, I’m delighted to say we are well on our way to Hipgnosis achieving all.”

    Catalogues acquired during the fiscal year include repertoire from Neil Young, Lindsey Buckingham / Fleetwood Mac, Steve Winwood, Debbie Harry & Chris Stein / Blondie, and Chrissie Hynde / The Pretenders, among others.