ICAEW.com works better with JavaScript enabled.

Continue reading

Song rights a billion-pound business

“These songs are as valuable as gold.” Since it was launched in 2018, music investment company Hipgnosis has raised more than £1bn based on the intellectual property value and management of successful albums and songwriters’ back catalogues.

When does a song become a “proven” song? For Merck Mercuriadis, founder of Hipgnosis, it is when “the earnings pattern to it becomes very predictable and reliable, and is therefore investable. These songs are as valuable as gold.”

How they are being priced is difficult to ascertain. The many interviews and press releases from Hipgnosis avoid revealing the sums paid for songwriters’ catalogues.