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Business News Deals Digital Labels & Publishers
MidOcean Partners buys data and royalties firm Music Reports
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 28 August 2020
New York-based private equity outfit MidOcean Partners has bought American music data and royalties administration firm Music Reports, promising that its investment into the company will “accelerate growth, both through organic product initiatives, as well as potential acquisitions”. MidOcean acquired the business from its co-founders and rival equity outfit ABRY Partners.
With the shift to streaming, the challenges have only increased when it comes to music rights data and royalty processing, especially on the songs side of the business. And the current diversification of the streaming market – with alternative business models now gaining momentum – will further add to those challenges. Which means there are plenty of opportunities for companies with data and royalty solutions.
Though there are also plenty of players now competing in that market. And, in the US, the market-place is shifting somewhat thanks to the creation of a new mechanical rights collecting society, which will takeover some of the responsibility for getting streaming royalties to songwriters and music publishers. Nevertheless, those opportunities remain, for both newer music data and royalty ventures, and the longer established players like Music Reports.
Confirming the acquisition, MidOcean MD Barrett Gilmer said: “The global recorded music industry is experiencing compelling growth driven by application development, smartphone penetration, and distribution. MidOcean identified an enormous need for specialised data and service providers to help navigate the incredibly complex web of rights, licenses, and payments”.
“We believe Music Reports serves this need better than anyone in the world”, he went on. “We are excited to support Dhruv and the management team to grow our new music services platform in the US and internationally”.
The there mentioned Dhruv is Dhruv Prasad, the MidOcean partner who will now become CEO of Music Reports. The firm’s co-founders Ronald Gertz and Douglas Brainin will stand down from their respective roles as Executive Chairman and CEO, but will continue to advise the business.
The two co-founders said in a statement: “For 25 years, Music Reports, the company that we built together, has been helping clients navigate the complex landscape of music royalties, while building an industry-leading global rights administration platform. We are excited for this next step in the company’s growth trajectory and look forward to working with Dhruv to execute the company’s mission to deliver best in class solutions to the greater media and music industries”.
