MidOcean Partners takes control of Music Reports

 

By Emmanuel Legrand

 

New York-based private equity company MidOcean Partners​​ has acquired Music Reports Inc (MRI), a Woodland Hills, CA-based company specialised in administering music royalties. ​​MidOcean bought out the shares owned by majority shareholder ABRY Partners and by co-founders Ronald Gertz and Douglas Brainin. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

 

   Music Reports was founded in 1995 ​by Gertz and Brainin, who will both exit their respective positions of Executive Chairman and CEO, but will remain involved with the company as Senior Advisors. 

 

  MidOcean Operating Partner Dhruv Prasad ​h​as ​been appointed ​President and CEO​ of MRI. ​The new owners said the investment will be used to “accelerate Music Report's growth, both through organic product initiatives, as well as potential acquisitions.” MRI operates two databases: Songdex, described as "the world's largest registry of music copyrights" and Cuetrack, a cue sheet management and analytics platform. MRI's services are used by the likes of Netflix, Pandora, HBO, TIDAL, CBS, among others.

 

Need for specialised data providers

 

  Barrett Gilmer, Managing Director at MidOcean, commented, “The global recorded music industry is experiencing compelling growth driven by application development, smartphone penetration, and distribution. MidOcean identified an enormous need for specialised data and service providers to help navigate the incredibly complex web of rights, licenses, and payments. We believe Music Reports serves this need better than anyone in the world."

 

  "For twenty-five years, Music Reports, the company that we built together, has been helping clients navigate the complex landscape of music royalties, while building an industry-leading global rights administration platform," said Gertz and Brainin, in a joint statement. "We are excited for this next step in the company's growth trajectory and look forward to working with Dhruv to execute the company's mission to deliver best in class solutions to the greater media and music industries."