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Björn Ulvaeus founded Pophouse buys up Swedish House Mafia catalogue, and confirms wider intent to invest in music rights

By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 30 March 2022

Stockholm-based Pophouse Entertainment has announced a deal with Swedish House Mafia which sees the company acquire a load of music rights and also form a new joint venture to manage the dance music group’s brand worldwide.

Pophouse was launched in 2014 by Björn Ulvaeus of Abba fame and Conni Jonsson, founder of private equity outfit EQT, in order to set up the Abba Museum and accompanying Pop House Hotel in the Swedish capital. Since then it has expanded into other venue, event and media ventures, and is also a key backer of the Abba Voyage show that is due to launch in London in May.

It also has an investments wing which says it is “building the world’s most vibrant catalogue of entertainment intellectual property rights”, which brings us back to the Swedish House Mafia deal. That transaction sees Pophouse acquire both the group’s recording rights and song rights, including the so called writer’s share of the latter, plus the recording and song rights from spin-off project Axwell Λ Ingrosso.

Confirming the deal, Pophouse CEO Per Sundin says: ”Swedish House Mafia is a groundbreaking trio that brought club music to stadiums around the world, and they continue to pave the way in contemporary electronic and dance music. We are so excited to be partnering with them to tell that story for generations to come”.

“While our landmark agreement with them involves the acquisition of the recordings and publishing of their back catalogue”, he goes on, “it is our first-of-its-kind joint venture with the band’s members that exemplifies the types of partnerships we are pursuing in our targeted expansion”.

Meanwhile, the three members of Swedish House Mafia add in a joint statement: “It feels great for us to partner up with a company like Pophouse that will do much more than simply acquire our creative work. Pophouse will invest funds, know-how and resources to bring our music into areas of entertainment where it hasn’t been before and for new audiences to discover our legacy”.

Pophouse is actively seeking other deals of this kind at the moment, with former Spotify exec Johan Lagerlöf heading up the company’s investments division in Stockholm, and American record industry veteran Steve Barnett on board as an advisor with a focus on seeking deals with US and UK rights-holders.

Says Lagerlöf: ”For Pophouse an acquisition is just a starting point in the relationship. We are here to invest further in brand-building activities that amplify artist legacies to new audiences and develop new revenue streams as we’ve done so successfully in our other endeavours. Pophouse is not replacing any existing stakeholder, but is joining forces with artists’ existing teams and partners to grow the business for all”.

While Barnett adds: ”I’ve known Per and Johan for many years, and have worked closely with them on so many endeavours on behalf of artists. I also had the pleasure of helping to relaunch the illustrious Abba catalogue in America at Capitol Records, and Björn Ulvaeus is simply one of the most creative and forward-thinking artists and executives in the history of our business. I’m THRILLED to be joining them and the entire Pophouse team as we forge new partnerships on behalf of artists in the US, UK and beyond”.