Shamrock Capital Advisors closed its acquisition of film, television, and music rights from Vine Alternative Investments. It forms part of the firm's content investment program it began roughly almost ten years ago. The acquired portfolio includes over 550 feature films, 2,000 hours of TV shows, and 450 songs, bringing total owned by Shamrock to more than 1,000 films, 3,000 hours of TV, and 20,000 musical compositions.
In October 2020, A-list DJ Calvin Harris sold his publishing catalog of more than 150 songs and collaborations to Vine Alternative Investments for an estimated $100 million. The works of the DJ, together with Ariana Grande, Pharrell Williams, Dua Lipa, Sam Smith, and Rihanna, will change hands with the sealed deal by Shamrock Capital Advisors this month.
Backed by Shamrock Capital Content Fund III, the acquisition closed for over $600 million. HighPoint Media Advisors is a consultancy firm established by Vine Partners Bill Lambert and Stephen Kovach to render deal-related consulting services.
The roots of Shamrock go back to a family investment office, established by Roy Disney in the 1970s, which has since grown to be an independent institutional firm with the management of approximately $4.5 billion in assets today. Notably, they've invested in the American exhibition basketball team Harlem Globetrotters, sports betting firm FanDuel, and part of singer Taylor Swift's music catalog master recordings.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal on their newest purchase, Shamrock partner Patrick Russo said, "It's the largest single transaction that we've done in the content strategy."
These music, TV, and film rights can help generate money for Shamrock in many ways, from Public Performance Royalties and Mechanical Royalties to Synchronization (Sync) Licensing. They can sell or license content in foreign markets to have extra revenue streams to take advantage of global demand for films, TV shows, and music.
Investing in Music Royalties
Everyday investors don’t need millions of dollars to start earning from music royalties. You can purchase other electronic pop song royalties from the likes of David Guetta, for instance.
In January 2024, this catalog was sold for $525,000, or 6.83 times its earnings in the last 12 months. In 2019, it recorded its highest earnings at $135,835.
Of the 25 tracks in the catalog, the RIAA-certified Platinum hit "Say My Name" by David Guetta, J Balvin and Bebe Rexha, has earned $45,736 in the last 12 months. This is followed by Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé’s 2016 hit, "Hurts."
When asked by Billboard if David Gueta pays attention to metrics, he mentioned “Say My Name” in his reply: “This year I’ve done ‘Say My Name,’ which has been pretty massive with 600 million streams on YouTube, so I still made a couple of really big pop records. But I’ve been trying to not be so obsessed with numbers. That actually brought me way more happiness and more creativity in being a producer.”
Streaming Mechanical royalties stand out as the largest income type, with an average annual income of $32,117.
Streaming from international sources is a top contributor in earnings at $36,026.
New to Music Royalties Investing?
If you’re a fan of EDM or other dance tracks, you too can start earning from music royalties. We’ve prepared this guide on Royalty Investing Made Easy to help you out.
At Royalty Exchange, you can choose from thousands of the most popular songs to invest in. We offer hundreds of catalogs that are up for auction today, so sign up as an investor to get started.
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