Blackstone considers selling music rights for billions

The world's leading asset manager Blackstone is currently exploring the market for a possible sale of its music rights, including works by iconic artists such as Bob Dylan, Adele, and Ariana Grande. According to informed sources, the company hopes to generate at least 3 billion dollars in revenue. Several prominent financial institutions, including Apollo Global Management, Warburg Pincus, and the state investment company Temasek from Singapore, have already expressed interest in the potential deals. However, whether an agreement will be reached remains uncertain. Blackstone considers the current market for performance rights to be particularly promising. These rights are managed by Blackstone's subsidiary SESAC, which grants licenses for public music performances, such as in TV series like 'Grey’s Anatomy'. Strengthened by rising revenues in music streaming, the value of such catalogs has increased significantly in recent years. A similar deal sparked the interest of potential buyers in Blackstone after TPG recently sold its shares in GMR for 3.3 billion dollars. Blackstone hopes for a comparable valuation at SESAC, which, however, may be too high a price for some interested parties. Music rights are particularly sought after in the financial world. For instance, Blackstone recently invested 1.6 billion dollars in Hipgnosis, an owner of music catalogs. New Mountain Capital also made a notable transaction in 2022 with the acquisition of BMI, one of the leading performance rights companies. The valuation of music rights has experienced a real boom: from over 28 billion dollars in 2023 to the current market capitalization of Universal Music Group amounting to 46 billion dollars.