From HYBE’s stake in SM Entertainment to Live Nation’s $9.6bn investment in artists… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.

One of the biggest stories in the global music business right now is playing out in South Korea.

On Wednesday (February 22), HYBE, the company behind acts like BTS and New Jeans, completed a deal to acquire a 14.8% stake in its rival SM Entertainment, which is behind stars like NCT, EXO and Aespa.

HYBE previously revealed that it intends to up its 14.8% stake in SM to around 40% of the company, by purchasing another 25.2% of SM Entertainment’s shares for a total of 1.14 trillion South Korea Won (USD $900 million) from minority shareholders.

This week saw SM Entertainment CFO Jang Cheol Hyuk post a video on YouTube in which he slammed HYBE’s takeover bid, while HYBE CEO Jiwon Park published an open letter noting that the deal marks “an era of change for both companies…”

Elsewhere this week, concerts giant Live Nation published its latest financial results, for Q4, and the full year ended December 31, 2022.

Live Nation generated revenues of $16.7 billion in 2022 and its concerts business was its primary revenue driver, generating $13.49 billion in 2022.

The company also says that it “invested $9.6 billion in putting on artists’ shows in 2022″ and claims to be “the largest contributor to artist income”.

Meanwhile, MBW crunched the numbers to reveal how Sony Music Group accelerated its status as the world’s second-biggest music rights company in 2022.

Plus, Taylor Swift was crowned as IFPI‘s 2022 Global Recording Artist Of The Year, while Thomas H. Lee, a billionaire financier based in New York who served on Warner Music Group‘s board for nearly two decades, was found dead yesterday in Manhattan aged 78.

Here’s what happened this week…

1) HYBE SAYS IT ‘CAN STAND SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER WITH THE WORLD’S MAJOR RECORD LABELS’ AS IT SECURES STAKE IN RIVAL SM ENTERTAINMENT

There is a lot of change and consolidation happening in the K-Pop industry right now.

On Wednesday (February 22), HYBE, the company behind acts like BTS and New Jeans, completed a deal to acquire a 14.8% stake in its rival SM Entertainment, which is behind stars like NCT, EXO and Aespa.

The deal, worth 422.8 billion South Korean won (approx. $335 million), means that HYBE is officially the largest single shareholder in SM Entertainment, having acquired those shares from the company’s founder Lee Soo Man.

In an open letter confirming the completion of the deal to buy the 14.8% stake, HYBE CEO Jiwon Park outlined what he believes are the similarities between HYBE and SM and noted that, “this is an era of change for both companies….”

2) HOW SONY MUSIC GROUP ACCELERATED ITS STATUS AS THE WORLD’S 2ND BIGGEST MUSIC RIGHTS COMPANY IN 2022

Sony Music enjoyed a spectacular night at the Grammys in Los Angeles earlier this month, as an array of its blockbuster recording artists, including Beyoncé, Harry Styles, and Adele claimed the night’s most glittering prizes.

In the same week, over in Tokyo, Sony Group Corporation – the parent company to Sony’s music operation – announced its latest quarterly results, in Yen, for the three months ending December 31, 2022 (Sony’s fiscal Q3, but calendar Q4).

By crunching the numbers on these quarterly results, MBW has been able to establish their value in US dollars, as well as working out how Sony’s music division performed across the course of calendar 2022.

[Long story short on our methodology: We use a Yen-USD conversion rate for Sony’s global revenues in each calendar quarter at the prevailing rate for each period as provided by Sony Corp. It’s worth noting that, during 2022, due to the strength of the dollar vs. many international currencies, this methodology is actually likely to skew against Sony, i.e. down-weighting its true global revenue performance – which is fairly remarkable when you consider the numbers below.]

[Last bit of arithmetical housekeeping before we get into the good stuff: Corporately speaking, Sony Group’s global music operation includes recorded music, plus music publishing, plus ‘Visual Media & Platform’ (VM&P). VM&P primarily covers mobile games and animation projects, and has been omitted from all revenue calculations in this analysis.]

So. According to MBW’s calculations based on Sony Corp’s announcements, Sony’s combined recorded music and music publishing operations generated USD $8.38 billion in the calendar year of 2022.

That USD $8.38 billion figure was up by $889 million on calendar 2021, or +11.9% year-on-year…

3) IS LIVE NATION ‘THE LARGEST FINANCIAL SUPPORTER’ OF ARTISTS? CONCERTS GIANT SPENT $9.6BN PUTTING ON SHOWS IN 2022

Within Live Nation’s latest earnings announcement, the company claims that its “investment in artists” i.e. what it spent on putting on artists’ shows in 2022, was up 45% versus 2019 to over $9.6 Billion in 2022.

Live Nation claims that this investment makes the company “the largest Financial Supporter of Musicians.”

According to global recorded music body IFPI, $5.8 billion is the sum of money “invested in A&R and marketing by record labels annually…”

4) LONG-TIME WARNER MUSIC GROUP BOARD MEMBER, THOMAS H. LEE, FOUND DEAD AT 78

Thomas H. Lee, a billionaire financier based in New York who served on Warner Music Group’s board for nearly two decades, was found dead yesterday in Manhattan aged 78.

Lee stepped down as a board director at WMG in 2021 following 17 years of service, but subsequently continued his affiliation with the music company as Director Emeritus.

The entrepreneur and private equity pioneer had a long and significant history with Warner Music: In 2004, he led the investor group that purchased the company from Time Warner…”

5) TAYLOR SWIFT’S RECORDED MUSIC GENERATED MORE MONEY GLOBALLY THAN ANY OTHER ARTIST IN 2022

Taylor Swift has been crowned as IFPI’s 2022 Global Recording Artist Of The Year.

That’s nice, not least because it comes with a fancy trophy.

But understanding what it actually means in business terms puts an important spin on things. Allow us to explain…

MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.

 Music Business Worldwide