The question
What makes the rights to an existing collection of songs attractive to an investor? And which assumptions would need to hold for a purchase to make financial sense?
What we examined
Anna Skelsey and I studied private-equity investment in music catalogues. We examined music rights and royalty income, the role of streaming, examples of catalogue acquisitions and the risks around pricing and future returns. We also considered how changing interest rates and AI could affect the market.
Why it interests me
Music sits at an intersection I keep returning to: creative work, the systems that bring it to an audience and the businesses built around it. Looking at the rights behind a song makes those relationships particularly concrete.