Hipgnosis, the firm that offers investors the chance to make money from the royalties of songs by famous artists from Neil Young to Beyoncé, has reported a jump in annual revenues of two-thirds thanks to a $1bn music catalogue buying spree and a boom in streaming during the pandemic.
The London-listed company, which earns royalties every time one of the 65,000 songs to which it owns the rights is played, said that revenues climbed 66% from $83m (£59m) to $138m in the year to the end of March.
Hipgnosis, which spent $1bn buying 84 new song catalogues last year, said the increase in streaming while the live music sector remained shut down fuelled a 50% increase in profits to $107m.
“Whilst we would never have wished for a pandemic, it has accelerated the consumption of classic songs through streaming,” said Merck Mercuriadis, the founder and chief executive of Hipgnosis. “With all our catalogues chosen due to their extraordinary success and cultural importance, extra high levels of streaming demand are a natural feature.”
The company cited the example of the band Journey’s catalogue, which has seen the number of songs streamed each week grow by 48% to 3.7m in the last four months, while its biggest hit Don’t Stop Believin’ passed the 1bn stream mark on Spotify in February.
Hipgnosis is increasingly focused on evergreen classic hits, with the proportion of songs that are older than 10 years accounting for 60% of its total portfolio, up from 32.5% at the end of March last year. Just under half of Hipgnosis’s portfolio (46%) is pop music, with rock the second-biggest genre at 27%.
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“Music, whilst not wholly impervious to the virus, has proved to be extremely resilient throughout this time demonstrating the appeal of hit songs to millions of people even in the most challenging times,” said Mercuriadis.
The company said streaming income rose 18.4% in the second half of its financial year, compared with the first six months.
In January, Hipgnosis acquired the rights to 50% of the royalties of Neil Young’s huge catalogue of 1,180 compositions in a deal reportedly worth about $150m. Since the start of the year the company has also struck deals with Shakira, former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, Metallica producer Bob Rock and Taylor Swift songwriter Joel Little.
