Round Hill Music - Acquisition Big Loud Shirt & Craig Wiseman rights
08/08/2023 07:00
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RNS Number : 5531I Round Hill Music Royalty Fund Ltd 08 August 2023
8 August 2023
Round Hill Music Royalty Fund Limited
("Round Hill Music" or the "Company")
Round Hill Music further increases Country music exposure with acquisition
of Big Loud Shirt and Craig Wiseman rights
Round Hill Music (LSE: RHM), which invests in evergreen music catalogues with
proven longevity and revenue streams that have growth potential, announces
that it has acquired the remaining share of the catalogue of music publishing
rights of Big Loud Shirt Industries, LLC ("Big Loud Shirt"), bringing to 100%
the Company's ownership of the high quality and globally renowned Country
music catalogue. The Company has also acquired 50% of the writer's income
streams from Craig Wiseman, the multi award-winning Country music songwriter
and producer who is also the founder and owner of Big Loud Shirt, a leading
independent music publisher.
The acquisition will be immediately income accretive, enhancing both revenues
and Economic NAV.
The new investments, which comprise more than 1,200 songs with multiple number
one singles performed by artists such as Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood,
Dierks Bentley, Faith Hill, Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw, offer significant
upside potential and add further diversification to the portfolio, by income
stream, vintage and genre. The majority of the songs date from before 2015 and
three quarters are at least seven years old, generating mature and proven
stable income streams in line with the Company's investment strategy. In the
period from 2017 to 2021, streaming income from the catalogue grew by
approximately 200% demonstrating its underlying value, while the Investment
Manager, Round Hill Music LP, has identified a number of opportunities where
the expertise of its in-house platform is well positioned to further grow
revenues from the expanded and newly acquired publishing rights.
Craig Wiseman is one of Country music's most accomplished and decorated
songwriters, having written 29 iconic, as well as many multi-week, Number One
hits and having received the 2014 Heritage Award from ASCAP (the American
Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) as the most performed Country
songwriter in the last 100 years. In 2009, he was named "Songwriter of the
Decade" by the Nashville Songwriters Association International and in 2015
he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Since he launched
Big Loud Shirt in 2003, the independent publisher has amassed a talented
roster of some of today's most successful songwriters and achieved over 40
Number One hit singles. It has also been recognised by Billboard as one of the
top 10 music publishing companies in the US, based on coveted radio airplay.
The deal brings new rights into the Company's portfolio and expands its
existing interests in some of the highest quality and most celebrated Country
music songs of the past 20 years, including the Grammy award winning 'Live
Like You Were Dying', sung by Tim McGraw, and Carrie Underwood's 'Before He
Cheats' and 'Blown Away', which have all been named Country Song of the Year.
The Big Loud Shirt catalogue boasts three further Grammy nominations,
including George Strait's fifty-sixth Number One song, 'I Saw God Today'. Well
known songs performed by Country music stars Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Kenny
Chesney, Luke Bryan and Reba McEntire are also represented.
The acquisition further increases the Company's exposure to the Country music
genre (by fair market value) which, as at 31 December 2022, comprised 11% of
the portfolio. Country is one of the fastest growing music genres in the UK
and globally. In the week commencing 27 June 2023, for the first time in over
40 years, Country songs held the number one and two spots in the Billboard Hot
100 chart while, in July 2022, Spotify announced that global streaming of
Country music on the platform had grown by more than 60% since 2019. In the
UK, Country music boasted 1.4 billion streams in 2022, an increase of 381% on
2018.
Josh Gruss, CEO of Round Hill Music LP, commented:
"Craig Wiseman and his publishing company, Big Loud Shirt, have produced some
of the highest profile, most recognisable and enduring Country music hits of
the last three decades, bringing them firmly in line with the song profile of
the Company's portfolio. We have a terrific working relationship with Craig,
who we have known for many years, and are deeply familiar with these songs.
This investment not only enables us to further increase Round Hill Music's
exposure to the fast growing Country music genre, but also provides an
exciting opportunity for us to leverage our in-house platform to manage these
incredible songs, maximising their income streams and further growing their
value."
Craig Wiseman, the American Country music songwriter, producer and the
owner/founder of Big Loud Shirt, said:
"I have known and been working with Round Hill for a decade and I'm thrilled
to be expanding our relationship by sharing these incredible pieces of art
with them. I know they will manage these songs carefully and effectively,
identifying creative opportunities to bring them to new audiences worldwide."
Due to commercial sensitivities, the Company is unable to disclose financial
details for the acquisition.
The Round Hill Music portfolio, valued at US$602.6 million 1 (as at 31
December 2022), includes enduring songs by artists such as the iconic 90s
Seattle band Alice In Chains, British Rock band Bush, Celine Dion, Country
music star Carrie Underwood, The Supremes, Wilson Pickett and Whitesnake.
On 25 May 2023, the Company announced its results for the first quarter of
2023, which indicated continued positive growth with the combined Net
Publisher's Share ("NPS") and Net Label Share ("NLS") 2 , up 91% on the first
quarter of 2022 to US$10.1 million (2022: US$5.3 million). Like-for-like
revenues from the Company's Initial Investments 3 increased by 20% and within
this, adjusted income from publishing rights was up 22% and adjusted income
from masters rights was up 14%. 4 Income from the Carlin interest increased
by US$1.0 million, or +200%, due to the improved collections of uncollected
digital income from its sub-publisher which collects in territories outside
the US, UK and Nordic countries.
Derek Crownover, Megan Pekar and Rob Kouchoukos of Loeb and Loeb, LLP acted on
behalf of Craig Wiseman and Big Loud Shirt. Michael Selverne and Ashley
Schilling of Selverne Bradford PLLC represented Round Hill in the transaction.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Round Hill Music LP
Josh Gruss, Founder and CEO Via Fourth Pillar below
Steve Clark, COO
Cenkos
Sales:
Justin Zawoda-Martin +44 20 7397 1923
Daniel Balabanoff +44 20 7397 1909
Andrew Worne +44 20 7397 1912
Corporate:
James King +44 20 7397 1913
Will Talkington +44 20 7397 1910
Fourth Pillar (Financial PR)
Claire Turvey +44 7850 548 198 / claire@thefourthpillar.co.uk
Lynne Best +44 7763 619709 / lynne@thefourthpillar.co.uk
Tomas Nevrkla +44 7963 548865 / tomas@thefourthpillar.co.uk
JTC
Mariana Enevoldsen +44 1481 702 485
About Round Hill Music Royalty Fund Limited
Round Hill Music Royalty Fund invests in high quality, evergreen music
catalogues that have proven longevity and revenue streams, with the aim of
providing investors with an attractive level of regular and growing income and
capital returns, underpinned by the positive structural drivers of the global
music industry.
The portfolio, valued at US$602.6 million 5 as at 31 December 2022, is
diversified by income stream and music genre, with value created through the
proactive and careful management and commercialisation of the repertoire
through synchronisation (placement in films, television series and brand
campaigns); licensing; data cleaning; and distribution (including across
platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, and Spotify).
Its 51 catalogues, totalling over 120,000 songs, include music performed by
artists such as Alice in Chains, Bonnie Tyler, Bruno Mars, Céline Dion, Lady
A, Louis Armstrong, The Offspring, The Supremes, Whitesnake and Wilson
Pickett.
The portfolio of rights includes copyright interests in a musical composition
or song (which can be the writer's share, publisher's share and/or performance
rights), the rights to the recording of a musical composition or song (the
master recording rights), as well as music rights and assets that meet the
Company's investment strategy and objectives. The Company is a non-cellular
Guernsey company.
A playlist of RHM's top 50 earners can be listened to on Spotify here
(https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4P46C6opRHt0reXwyy7dRt?si=ad5e135307ec4a14&nd=1)
. We recommend it served loud.
About Round Hill Music LP (the Investment Manager)
Founded in 2010, Round Hill Music LP is a fully integrated owner and operator
of music copyright properties. It currently manages 150+ catalogues, totalling
330,000+ songs with a combined value of c.US$1.2 billion.
With c.70 employees located in the major music and entertainment markets of
Nashville, New York, Los Angeles and London, Round Hill Music LP has an
experienced management and investment team with an established reputation and
extensive expertise in the music and finance industries.
1 Includes net recoupable advances to songwriters of US$3.8 million.
2 Net Publisher Share ("NPS") is the amount received by the music publisher
after deduction of all fees, commissions and all royalties and other shares of
income payable to third parties. Net Label Share ("NLS") is the amount
received by the owner of master recordings after deduction of all fees,
commissions and all royalties and other shares of income payable to third
parties.
3 Represents the First Investment (Round Hill Fund One excluding the Carlin
Investment) and the Carlin Investment.
4 Publishing income adjusted for a delay in the receipt of royalty
statements from February 2022 that were not processed until April 2022.
Masters income adjusted to exclude certain one-time expenses including a
delayed royalty expense from the second half of 2022 that was processed in the
first quarter of 2023.
5 Includes net recoupable advances to songwriters of US$3.8 million.
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