With the music industry settled into a post-pandemic routine and the halcyon days of initial public offerings in the rearview mirror, 2024 could have been a sleepy year for financial transactions. It didn’t work out that way. Instead, it was filled with the kind of large deals that changed the music business landscape.
At the same time, though, many of the biggest deals were predictable. Two of the biggest catalog sales, Pink Floyd and Queen, had been shopped since 2022 and 2023, respectively. BMI’s acquisition by private equity firm New Mountain Capital was a foregone conclusion — Billboard reported the U.S. performing rights organization’s plans to sell last August, and the deal, which didn’t officially close until this year, was agreed upon in November 2023. And given the popularity of asset-backed securities (ABS) in 2024’s high-interest rate environment, there were sure to be a few big-dollar ABS deals before the end of the year.
There were countless notable deals outside of the top 12, too. Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group went on a buying spree, investing in and acquiring distributors and record labels, with an eye on emerging markets. Recording artists, songwriters and producers sold their rights — often including name and likeness — to a wide range of traditional and financial buyers. Today’s abundance of financing options created a long tail of deals both big and small. JKBX launched in 2024, giving investors another place to buy shares of song rights. And distributors and financial services firms such as beatBread and RoyFi handed out royalty advances that most artists could hardly get from traditional banks.
Here, Billboard highlights the dozen biggest transactions — ones that officially closed — of the year, ranked by dollar amount. Most are acquisitions. A few are purely financial transactions backed by music royalties that will fund acquisitions that generate even more royalties.
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