Welcome to Music Business Global’s weekly roundup – where we make sure you catch the five biggest stories that have made our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s review is supported by China Travel Servicehelping more than 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce touring costs.
After more than a year of rumors and reports that Queen would hit the billion-dollar mark in record sales, we received news this week that the legendary Freddie Mercury-fronted band’s recording and publishing rights have fetched a higher price Sold to Sony Music.
Aside from this deal (which has yet to be officially confirmed), most of the news in the music world this week has focused on one “music-industry-adjacent” company: TikTok.
This week, MBW broke the news that the Bytedance-owned social media company is forming an investment team to buy music rights and companies, meaning it may soon become less “music-related” and more A real music company.
We also learned this week that Kobalt subsidiary Amra, which bills itself as “the first and only global digital collections association,” has invested more than $50 million in its technology to date.
Meanwhile, ByteDance plans to spend $2.1 billion to build an artificial intelligence center in Malaysia, making the China-based company the latest technology giant to invest heavily in the country’s booming artificial intelligence industry.
Finally, this week, we asked the question: What if Spotify took Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer’s advice and started charging for its free, ad-supported subscription tier? The short answer is “it depends,” but Spotify will likely make a lot of money.
Here’s what happened this week…
Image source: Shutterstock
1) QUEEN CATALOG to be acquired by Sony Music for $1.27 billion (report)
Sony Music Entertainment is to acquire the discography of legendary rock band Queen in a landmark deal worth £1 billion ($1.27 billion at current exchange rates).
Sony Music has emerged as the winning buyer of Queen’s recording and publishing rights, as well as royalties previously agreed with Disney Music Group and Universal Music Group, Hits reported on Wednesday (June 19), citing sources.
Queen’s repertoire includes hits such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and “We Will Rock You.”
Universal Music Group, as Disney’s distributor, will reportedly retain distribution rights in North America, but Sony will receive royalties. UMG’s global distribution rights will transfer to Sony in 2026 or 2027, making Sony Music the sole distributor and owner of all Queen content worldwide…
Image source: izzuanroslan/Shutterstock
2) TikTok is forming an investment team to acquire music content and companies
Two years ago, we asked TikTok if it was slowly turning into a record label.
The Bytedance-owned platform recently entered the music distribution market with its SoundOn service and is hiring A&R executives with record label experience.
On June 18, MBW revealed that TikTok is taking this development to the next stage – planning to acquire and invest in music rights.
We learned that TikTok is forming internal music content investment teams in Los Angeles, New York and San Jose and focusing on “collaboration or acquisition opportunities in the global music content field.”
In other words, TikTok is entering the highly competitive music M&A market…
Image source: Poetra.RH/Shutterstock
3) TikTok parent company ByteDance spends US$2.1 billion to develop AI HUB in Malaysia
Malaysia has become the focus of artificial intelligence-related investments by global technology giants.
ByteDance, the parent company of China-based social video app TikTok, is the latest in a series of tech companies betting on Malaysia, making big investments centered on its booming artificial intelligence business.
According to Reuters, the country’s Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz posted on social media last week that ByteDance “plans to invest in artificial intelligence to make Malaysia an artificial intelligence hub in the region, with a proposed investment of approximately RM10.” billion”, which translates to approximately US$2.1 billion…
4) To date, Amra has invested over $50 million in its technology, most of which has been spent in the past 3 years
Since its acquisition/launch by Kobalt in 2015, Amra has grown into a strong company.
No wonder Francisco Partners, which acquired a majority stake in Kobalt in 2022, has identified Amra as a growth priority. (FP’s Matt Spetzler reiterated Amra’s status as “the only global digital licensing platform” at the time.)
Today (June 20), Amra released a statistic that tells the story of how seriously Kobalt/FP takes the opportunity in front of them: Amra has confirmed that its total technology investments to date exceed $50 million, with the largest share of this figure It was spent in the past three years…
Image source: Nicolas Ospina Soriano/Shutterstock
5) What would happen if Spotify started charging “modest fees” for its ad funding tier…or shut it down entirely?
The current “free” ad-supported music streaming model could be getting an overhaul.
Last month, Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer took aim at freemium services offered by companies such as Spotify during a May 30 speech to Sony Group investors.
The Sony executive suggested that DSPs should narrow the growing “price gap” between paying users and free users, especially in mature streaming media markets.
Stringer’s solution: Charge currently free users a “modest fee” to listen to music and other content on an ad-supported service.
So what would happen if Spotify, as Stringer suggested, now additionally started charging a fee for access to its ad-funded tier…?
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