Topic
BMG and Concord completed their combination on 1 Sep 2026, creating a company with more than four million works, $2.2 billion in pro forma revenue and a target to grow profit far faster than sales. For artists and songwriters, scale may bring investment, but it also removes one of the few large buyers that wasn't a major.
Industryvia BMG
Sony Music Publishing has closed its purchase of Recognition Music Group's 45,000-song catalogue, the former Hipgnosis portfolio, at a price reported at $3.5 billion to $4 billion. For the writers whose shares are inside it, the songs are now with their third owner, and each sale has taken them further from the people who wrote them.
Industryvia GIC (joint press release with Sony Music Publishing and Blackstone)
One email a week: the music-tech and AI-in-music news that mattered, and what we think about it.