Hipgnosis Songs Fund next phase of growth with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend
Just over two years after it arrived on the London Stock Exchange, Hipgnosis Songs Fund is entering the next phase of its growth with hundreds of millions of dollars at its disposal to spend.
The Hipgnosis founder comments:
““I’ve been very vocal about disrupting the world of traditional publishing with ‘Song Management. It’s a testament to the iconic song catalogue that we have assembled over the last two-plus years, and our songwriters, that we have been able to attract executives with the extraordinary talent, pedigree and success of Ted and Amy.”
Listen on Podcast:
Amy Thomson —
formerly manager of Swedish House Mafia and DJ Snake, and a marketing advisor to Kanye West — who is named Chief Catalogue Officer at Hipgnosis.
Amy Thomson is one of the most successful artist managers in electronic music history.
The founder of ATM Artists managed Swedish House Mafia for almost 15 years before parting ways with the group in 2018.
Her career has also seen her handle marketing for Kanye West during a crucial period of his career, in addition to managing the likes of Seal and DJ Snake.
Thomson has squeezed all of the most important things she’s learned about artist management during her career into a 400 page digital book… and is giving it away for free.
You can download it right here.
The ebook summarized the multiple topics an artist manager needs to be aware of in the modern industry.
Ted Cockle-
the former head of Universal’s biggest label in the UK — Virgin EMI (now EMI Records) — has been named President of Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
Former Virgin EMI president Ted Cockle departed the label in just recetly as published in the June 2020 article on Billboard. During his 15-year run with Universal Music Group, he helped build UMusic UK’s largest growth with successes like Scottish superstar Lewis Capaldi.
Cockle has also run Virgin EMI since the label’s launch in 2013 as an amalgamation of Universal Music subsidiary Mercury Records and Virgin Records.
Virgin EMI’s roster of British artists includes Capaldi, Bastille and Emeli Sandé, while it also serves as the UK label home for superstars like Justin Bieber, Migos, Shawn Mendes and Taylor Swift.
MERCK MERCURIADIS
Merck Mercuriadis is a Canadian–American music industry executive and entrepreneur.
Mercuriadis, CEO and Founder of Hipgnosis, raised a billion dollars — as he tells MBW on their podcast, he’s now officially spent a billion dollars, across approximately 60 deals.
“We’ve made something just under 60 deals in the last 21 months and invested just north of $1 billion. Out of those 60 deals, 40 are ones where I went after the songwriter or artist and developed a rapport — if I didn’t have one before — before we got into the nitty gritty of making a deal. The other third are people approaching us based on what they’ve read about us or read about me.”
Those deals have seen Hipgnosis buy — or partly buy — 12,000 songs, including those which have powered an array of hits such as Rihanna’s Umbrella, Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You, Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together, Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) and Beyoncé’s Single Ladies.
“I don’t believe there’s a traditional publisher that has brought together this level of expertise to manage its songs. Our results have been strong and with Ted and Amy now on board I look forward to everything their passion and know-how will help us to achieve.”