Litmus Music has been busy.
Since late 2022, the corporate – backed by Carlyle’s World Credit score Platform – has acquired catalogs from the likes of Benny Blanco, Keith City, and Katy Perry.
Earlier this 12 months, it emerged that Litmus had splashed a nine-figure sum to accumulate the music asset portfolio of Opus, together with rights to music catalogs from Juice WRLD, Ozuna, Maluma and Rauw Alejandro.
As we speak (October 17), Litmus has introduced its newest main deal: buying Randy Newman’s share of his recorded music and publishing.
The catalog encompasses each Newman’s soundtrack work for Disney franchises corresponding to Toy Story, Automobiles, and The Princess & The Frog, plus his studio data from the ’70s and ’80s, together with “I Love L.A.,” “Mama Instructed Me Not To Come,” “Feels Like Residence,” “You Can Go away Your Hat On,” “Brief Individuals,” “Baltimore,” and “It’s A Jungle Out There”.
(Some essential small print: The recorded music masters to Newman’s work for Disney are owned by Disney Music Group; the masters for many of his ’70s and ’80s studio work are owned by Warner Music Group. Newman seems to have offered his royalty stream from these recordings to Litmus. In the meantime, the long-time supervisor of Newman’s music publishing rights is Common Music Publishing Group.)
Litmus Music was based by music biz veterans Dan McCarroll and Hank Forsyth in summer season 2022. At that time, the pair had been backed by USD $500 million in funding from Carlyle World Credit score, break up between fairness and debt.
Earlier this 12 months, Litmus elevated the scale of its credit score facility from Carlyle from $250 million to $400 million, which it used to finish the Opus acquisition.
Monetary phrases of the Randy Newman acquisition haven’t been disclosed.
Discussing the Randy Newman deal right this moment, Dan McCarroll, Co-Founder and Chief Artistic Officer of Litmus Music, mentioned: “Randy Newman is a novel and good songwriter, composer, and performer whose physique of labor has confirmed him to be an artist for the ages.
“There’s completely nobody like him, and his affect on the music world can’t be overstated. We couldn’t be extra proud and excited to accumulate Randy’s catalog of lovely, witty, and sharply observational songs.”
Hank Forsyth, Co-Founder and Chief Government Officer of Litmus Music, added: “Randy’s music has touched so many generations. His songs proceed to transcend time and illuminate movies. Dan and I and the complete Litmus staff are so grateful Randy has trusted us as his companion to look after these songs and recordings. It’s an honor and accountability we don’t take frivolously.
Alex Popov, Head of Non-public Credit score at Carlyle, mentioned: “Randy Newman’s music has been a staple of childhood reminiscences and experiences for many years.
“Litmus Music continues to companion with the world’s main artists to advertise and drive worth for iconic catalogs.”
Talking with Reuters, Popov additional commented: “Music is an business with important tailwinds. It supplies traders with uncorrelated revenue – traders obtain a stream of money flows that’s not correlated with extra conventional financial exercise – and it’s a sizeable market.”
He added: “With Randy Newman’s catalog, there’s a important worth that’s being created by its affiliation with Disney and a number of the storied films like ‘Toy Story’.
“That is the kind of asset that we gravitate to. When it comes to stability of demand, Newman is on the high of the listing.”
Newman’s debut and self-titled album Randy Newman was launched in 1969.
All through the Seventies, Nineteen Eighties, and Nineteen Nineties he launched a number of acclaimed albums corresponding to: 12 Songs, Sail Away, Good Previous Boys, Little Criminals, Born Once more, Hassle in Paradise, Land of Goals, and Dangerous Love.
Since 2003, he has launched three Randy Newman Songbook volumes, plus the Randy Newman: Stay in London CD/DVD, Harps and Angels, and Darkish Matter.Music Enterprise Worldwide
