Rob Stringer talks Queen, Michael Jackson, and Pink Floyd offers – plus TikTok – at Bloomberg occasion

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Rob Stringer, the Chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Leisure, doesn’t give many public interviews.

For one factor, Stringer – not like his contemporaries at Common Music Group and Warner Music Group – isn’t required to face down questions from funding analysts on quarterly earnings calls.

That’s as a result of, not like UMG and WMG, Sony Music Group isn’t straight publicly traded. As an alternative it’s an vital (and more and more worthwhile) subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Sony Company, which additionally performs residence to PlayStation, Sony Footage, and different key divisions.

Stringer gave a uncommon interview yesterday (October 10), nonetheless, to Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw on the monetary publication’s Screentime convention in Los Angeles.

The duo’s wide-ranging dialog coated floor that occupies the minds of music biz sorts each day.

Matters included Sony’s current catalog M&A splurge, which has seen it purchase rights related to storied acts together with Michael Jackson, Queen, and Pink Floyd.

Stringer additionally mentioned the facility stability between artists and labels within the report enterprise, plus the function of TikTok… and the way a lot it pays rightsholders for using their music.

You’ll be able to watch Stringer and Shaw’s dialogue beneath, however we’ve additionally rounded up 4 issues that notably stood out from the interview…

1) Sony Music’s boss confirmed their Pink Floyd, Queen and Michael Jackson offers… and pointed to ‘experiential’ alternatives for heritage acts.

One of many largest revelations from Stringer’s interview at Bloomberg’s Screentime convention was the affirmation of the corporate’s current catalog offers with Pink Floyd, Queen, and the property of Michael Jackson.

Earlier this month, we reported that Pink Floyd had agreed to promote their recorded music catalog to Sony Music in an settlement value roughly USD $400 million, in response to sources.

The information arrived after Sony reportedly accomplished the acquisition of a career-spanning set of rights for an additional legendary band, Queen, for over $1 billion, earlier this 12 months.

The Michael Jackson sale, in the meantime, first reported in February, sees Sony Music buying 50% of Jackson’s publishing and recorded masters catalog, whereas taking part in different revenue streams.

These three offers adopted a $150 million-plus deal in 2022 for Bob Dylan’s recorded music catalog and a $500 million-plus deal in 2021 for the masters and publishing rights to Bruce Springsteen’s catalog.

Stringer was requested why Sony has been so lively in shopping for these catalogs and to clarify why the reported values of the three most up-to-date offers (which he didn’t verify) are as excessive as they’re. Stringer stated: “Utilizing the trendy artwork idea, I feel this music is priceless.”

He added that “there is no such thing as a worth, so far as I’m involved, for Pink Floyd” and equated the worth of the legendary British band’s catalog to a portray by Pablo Picasso.

“What worth are you able to placed on … a Picasso?” It’s relative,” he stated.

“Utilizing the trendy artwork idea, I feel this music is priceless.”

Rob Stringer

Stringer additionally confirmed that Sony “purchased title and likeness on two of these acts”, including that Sony now owns “all of the logos [and] merchandising,” and pointed to the “experiential potential” and “occasion potential” offered by proudly owning the NIL rights.

Experiential occasions utilizing the likeness and music of famous person artists may be very large enterprise. Simply a few weeks in the past, we realized that the ABBA Voyage digital expertise in London generated over $129 million in 2023.

Legendary rock band KISS just lately bought their tune catalog, plus title, picture and likeness rights — together with their face paint designs — to music funding agency Pophouse Leisure (the corporate behind ABBA Voyage) and likewise plan to launch a digital live performance collection that includes digital variations of themselves.

Might we see an analogous digital expertise for the likes of Queen, Michael Jackson or Pink Floyd? The general public’s demand for digital concert events is definitely there, as evidenced by the 1.1 million guests to ABBA Voyage final 12 months.

Stringer additionally supplied a little bit of perception into why he believes shopping for catalogs of legacy acts like Pink Floyd are funding within the streaming, noting that the viewers is getting older on “Spotify now, because it hits maturity, notably [in] the English language markets”.

“So if you happen to have a look at the dynamics of {the marketplace}, it implies that the share of individuals listening to older music is far larger. I feel it’s a foregone conclusion, to be sincere.”

Stringer additionally identified that Sony already had long-running relationships with “each one” of the artists with which the corporate has struck current large cash catalog offers, together with Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Queen and Bob Dylan.

“We have now a variety of creative understanding and we’ve a variety of experience on the construction of these artists’ careers,” he stated.

“So that they felt like match. And fairly frankly, I didn’t need any of these artists to go wherever else.”

2) The music rights trade allowed TikTok to ‘develop into MTV’

The music trade’s relationship with TikTok is commonly harmonious, but typically fractious.

The argument that music has performed a key function in TikTok’s progress has led some within the trade to query whether or not artists, songwriters, and report labels are adequately remunerated for using music on its platform.

At the start of the 12 months, Common Music Group pulled its catalog from TikTok, primarily as a result of, in UMG’s phrases, “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a charge that could be a fraction of the speed that equally located main social platforms pay”.

However after a three-month licensing stand-off, UMG and TikTok struck what they referred to as “a brand new multi-dimensional licensing settlement”.

“We allowed them to be MTV and we shouldn’t have executed that. And now we’re backpedaling. They aren’t a promotional platform.”

Rob Stringer

Throughout his interview on Thursday, Stringer was requested if TikTok pays Sony Music sufficient.

Stringer argued that “the talk on that may be: Did we begin off with TikTok on the best be aware, and did we permit them to develop into what they assume they’re, which is a promotional platform? And we most likely did.”

He added: “They aren’t [a] promotional platform. They’re a vastly worthwhile company and we allowed them to be MTV and we shouldn’t have executed that. And now we’re backpedaling from that.”

TikTok’s not the one service that Stringer says needs to be paying extra to the music trade, nonetheless.

He added: “The reality is, we should always receives a commission extra by a number of of our a number of of our DSP companions. And that’s a part of my job. It’s to make it possible for we’re paid after which flip the eyes to pay.”

3) On… why he’s glad to not run a public music firm like Warner Music Group and Common Music Group

Elsewhere through the interview, Stringer was requested concerning the variations between Sony and its rivals Warner and Common and whether or not these rivals being publicly traded corporations profit Sony as a result of they’re required to make public disclosures, together with quarterly experiences.

Common Music listed on the Amsterdam Euronext in October 2021, whereas Warner Music Group launched its IPO on the NASDAQ in 2020.

Sony Music’s father or mother firm, Tokyo-headquartered Sony Corp, is publicly traded and experiences outcomes for its music unit in its quarterly monetary experiences alongside outcomes for its different divisions, together with Gaming and Footage.

“Would I need to be doing [quarterly earnings],” requested Stringer, in response to the query about his rivals, including: “Not notably.”

Added Stringer: “We don’t even put out press releases concerning the issues we do, which I do know typically is a little bit bit annoying [for the media].

“We are able to signal large catalogs and we don’t inform anyone formally as a result of it’s not fairly the identical dynamic.

“Would I need to be in that place [of running a publicly-traded music company]? No, not likely.”

“To be backstage whenever you’re doing my job, is just not a horrible factor.”

Rob Stringer

Stringer additionally commented on how “powerful” it have to be, to be the chief of a publicly traded music firm like Common or Warner.

“I feel it’s powerful and I’m pleasant with folks within the different corporations,” he stated. “I’ve labored with the pinnacle of Common [Sir Lucian Grainge] and I’ve identified him for practically 35 years. It’s a it’s a tricky gig, that. It’s [tough] to be actually reporting again to shareholders and buyers each three months and it’s a must to speak your organization up.”

Added Stringer: “I’m lucky that I do investor evaluation conferences twice a 12 months and I contribute to the Sony quarterlies, however I’m left a little bit bit extra.

I feel that [being] backstage whenever you’re doing all of your job is just not a horrible factor. The artists are in entrance of the curtain. The expertise is in entrance of the curtain. And I feel [a music company CEO] being backstage is usually higher.”

4) The facility stability between artists and labels

Stringer additionally argued that within the period of digital music, “the artists have on the very least equal energy to us, if no more energy to us, as a result of we’re a part of an total image.”

That “total image” consists of “reside, merch, branding… there’s a variety of streams now of the music enterprise which can be tremendous profitable, and we’re one strand,” Stringer stated.

However after all, it wasn’t all the time this fashion.

“After I began – I began in 1985  – [labels] managed manufacturing, managed distribution. We managed radio… We had been passport management for artists. So we had much more energy,” Stringer stated.

Nonetheless, Stringer says he doesn’t thoughts that report corporations have relinquished their “passport management” credentials.

“I’ve been very snug with that,” he stated. “I wished to be the artist companion, I by no means wished to be a cigar-smoking fats cat!”Music Enterprise Worldwide