Shakira – the best selling female Latin music artist of all time, with 80 million records sold worldwide – becomes the latest in a series of internationally renowned stars to sell their music to Hipgnosis. Most notably, Bob Dylan, Blondie, Mark Ronson and Neil Young have all cashed in with Hipgnosis in the last year. Speaking on the acquisition, Shakira stated that she felt Hipgnosis would offer a “great home” for her music. “At eight years old – long before I sang – I wrote to make sense of the world. Each song is a reflection of the person I was at the time that I wrote it, but once a song is out in the world, it belongs not only to me but to those who appreciate it as well,” she said.

Merck Mercuriadis is the founder and CEO of Hipgnosis, as well as the former manager of numerous pop sensations including Elton John and Beyoncé. He targets a value of £3 billion for the company in the coming years, building revenue streams  – via licensing, merchandise and performance royalties – through the newly acquired assets. However, Mercuriadis maintains that Hipgnosis employs an artist-centric approach to acquiring and managing music rights.

Speaking to Music Week, he said: “The first main motive, above making money, is to change where the songwriter sits in the economic equation. I had a very good sense that it would be successful, and that it would give me the leverage of great assets to help to be a catalyst for changing where the songwriter sits in the economic equation. That’s important to me. When I look at Universal, Warner and Sony, which are great companies that have great people in them, they’re operating under a paradigm that I don’t agree with when it comes to how a songwriter is paid. 

“They use the passive income of their great hits, their incredible catalogues, to underwrite that business. We’re not in that business, we’re in the business of managing songs. And I believe that the way that you get more out of songs is by putting more into them.”

Mercuriadis co-founded Hipgnosis in 2018 with Chic guitarist and industry legend, Nile Rodgers. An outspoken critic of financial distribution in the music industry, Rodgers appeared before a digital, culture, media and sport select committee last year to provide evidence pertaining to the economics of streaming. Rodgers described the current system as “just ridiculous”, while accusing major labels of intentionally withholding money from artists. However, addressing the committee, he expressed his optimism that a fairer deal could be struck, asking MPs to make the UK a “leader” in regulating the streaming market.

Hipgnosis, founded by music industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis, is an IP (Intellectual Property) investment company registered in Guernsey. They buy the rights to songs and allow the public to invest in songs as they gain fame, listens, views, and streams over time. Co-founded by CHIC guitarist and frontman Nile Rodgers, Hipgnosis has an already impressive portfolio before this buy with artists like the Kaiser Chiefs, Blondie, and Journey.

With songs like The Chain, and Go Your Own Way from Fleetwood Mac and In Da Club from 50 Cent, this new acquisition was a big one. Adding to their already impressive portfolio of artists, songwriters, and producers this will add more interest to investors both old and new. However, although Fleetwood Mac and 50 Cent are big, the biggest buy may be worth more.

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All I want for Christmas is… 33,000 songs. Our new acquisition of 42 song catalogues from @kobaltmusic Capital brings in a whole package of hits – including the perfectly-timed @mariahcarey hit which last year broke @spotify’s record for most streams in 24 hours.

A post shared by Hipgnosis Songs (@hipgnosissongs) on Nov 2, 2020 at 5:40am PST

Amongst the purchases was 50% of the Christmas hit All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey! The festive staple was co-written by Walter Afanasieff alongside Carey. Afanasieff’s half was the half acquired by the investment giant. With many reasons why this is such a monumental buy, inverters are sure to be quick on this one. With Christmas just around the corner, this is one of the biggest buys and investments that could happen.

All I Want For Christmas Is You…it is a seasonal must. You can’t go a single Christmas without hearing this song basically every day and of course, we always sing along. With almost 700,000,000 streams on Spotify making over $60 million as of last year (2019) the chance to invest in such an era-defining song could be one of Hipgnosis’ best assets to date.

This acquisition couldn’t come at a better time for Hipgnosis. As we are now in November and nearing Christmas, songs such as Carey’s will start to be played as we get our festive playlists ready. Not only is it the right time but it may be the right year also. As many suffer from the pandemic and the world’s mental state weakens many have already started to decorate, plan, and start Christmas to cheer themselves and others up.

Not only is this such a large purchase in the sense of how incredible this is, but it is also large in the fact it is the biggest purchase of its kind in a number of years. This purchase marks the biggest purchase in music publishing since Concord acquired Imagem for over $550m in summer 2017. The only difference is that Concord was for a music company and Hipgnosis bought copyrights.

If you want to invest in songs such as Carey’s and other big names now may be the time.