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Hipgnosis buys independent publisher Big Deal

By | Published on Thursday 10 September 2020

Hipgnosis Songs Fund

Another deal from the HQ of the Hipgnosis Songs Fund now, though today it’s a deal to buy a whole music publishing company, not just the rights of an individual artist or songwriter. That publishing company is Big Deal Music. Though, thanks to this big deal Big Deal will no longer be Big Deal. Which is a big deal, right? The company will rebrand as the Hipgnosis Songs Group.

So, basically, the acquisition brings both infrastructure and catalogue to the ever expansive Hipgnosis empire. And manpower and expertise too. Big Deal CEO Kenny MacPherson will become CEO of the all-new Hipgnosis Songs Group. And he and various other senior execs at Big Deal will now work alongside those other recently announced top-level hires at Hipgnosis, ie former Universal exec Ted Cockle and former artist manager Amy Thomson.

Commenting on all these latest developments, Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis says: “With this acquisition, and following the appointment of Ted Cockle and Amy Thomson earlier this week, the scale and quality of people working with me to drive shareholder returns reaches new heights and sets our company on the path for the next chapter of its growth. This is a best in class team and we now have the resource to be on top of every song’s destiny all day every day”.

On the Big Deal side of the big deal, MacPherson, adds: “Collectively my partners and I have spent our careers identifying and nurturing some of the most iconic songwriters in contemporary music and creating value for our investors. Over the last eight years at Big Deal Music my partners and I built a meaningful cultural legacy by assembling an incredible group of artists and label partners and world class songwriters”.

“We look forward to bringing those creators and their enormous talent with us as we join Merck and his team at Hipgnosis”, he goes on. “What Hipgnosis has assembled in such a short time is truly remarkable – a catalogue of over 13,000 compositions from some of the most important creators in the history of music. My team and I look forward to bringing all of our experience to bear to unlock more value in these catalogues and continue to build on the amazing work that Merck and his team have already done at Hipgnosis”.



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