New Music Drops Every Minute. But Back-Catalogs Are Driving the Industry's Transformation

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New records drop every minute — so why are older back-catalogs at the center of the music business right now?

Where, then, is all of this leading? One suggestion put to me by a couple of very senior people in the global business recently is that it could eventually change the historic structure of music’s biggest companies — as investor interests collide head-on with the traditional way of doing things.

The theory goes like this: With catalog worth significantly more than “new” repertoire , it may soon be time for major music companies to spin out their catalog rights into separately-held vehicles. If you took the recordings or publishing catalog of any major music company today and dumped it in a basket — away from all overhead, untouched and unloved — the popularity of streaming would still provide you with a significant guaranteed return each year. Considering the complete lack of operative costs involved in this structure, this basket of rights would naturally carry a very high profit margin, and therefore, demand a very high valuation.

Right now, however, billions of dollars in annual returns from catalog music are being re-invested into the frontline A&R activity of the record/publishing companies that own them. For example, in 2019 Universal Music Group generated

 

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I mostly listen to slaps that are years old

New music sucks

When you stop exploring new music a part of you (very large) has died.

Sorry, what?

they look like a double team,i'd rush that

Because the new music that’s coming out lately SUCKS!

Because most people don't want to listen and find new music. Instead they want to listen to the same thing they know 1000x over.

(💰💰💰) 🤭

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