The Catalyst
Ideas with a spark, energy, range and the ability to start things.
Merck Mercuriadis presents himself throughout this interview as a deliberate agent of structural change in the music industry, not merely a financial operator. He built Hipgnosis Songs Fund with an explicit dual mandate: generating shareholder returns and repositioning songwriters at the top of the economic equation.
“But if those three major labels own, correct me if I'm wrong, two-thirds of all music ever made, does that mean you can't get your hands on it very easily? What we're doing is we're empowering the songwriter. We're making these deals. On the one hand, we're buying out their rights, but we're buying out the rights directly from them.”
“From the perspective of the UK, my feeling very, very strongly was that music plays a much more important role in the day-to-day life of the average Brit than it plays anywhere else in the world. You can credit Radio 1 with that.”
“But my feeling was that music plays a more important role in the day-to-day life of the average Brit and therefore the understanding of this as an asset class and the logic behind it would resonate. And that's true.”
“But again, alignment is only There, about three quarters of the time because David Israelite represents the publishing community, doesn't represent the songwriting community.”
Money Maze Podcast: “Merck Mercuriadis - The Music Man : Play me that investment!”
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