Notes on Financialization: A series!
A new recurring column for MUSICx on investment, consolidation, and the capital reshaping the music industry.
Grateful, as always, to Maarten for inviting me to publish with the MUSIC x collective, and for continuing to make space for my critical, sometimes slightly unhingedđ«Ł, analysis of where the music industry is headed.
Iâve got an essay out today introducing Notes on Financialization, a new bi-monthly-ish roundup on MUSICx tracking major financial transactions across music. Think investment deals, catalog acquisitions, private equity exits, distro consolidation, debt instruments, share buybacks, and all the other fun (see also: depressing!) ways that capital keeps reorganizing the industry.
The series is directly inspired by David Turnerâs indispensable, but now defunct, newsletter Penny Fractions, and its recurring feature âA Note of Financialization,â where David tracked music industry investment and consolidation with a critical eye. With deep appreciation to David for the inspiration, this new series is an attempt to carry a little bit of that spirit forward.
This first edition looks at a particularly bonkers stretch of music business activity, including Kobaltâs sale to Primary Wave/Brookfield, the BMG-Concord merger, Ninja Tune ending up inside a Bertelsmann-controlled company, major-label moves into distribution infrastructure, and the growing debt machine behind catalog acquisition.
The basic argument is that these deals shouldnât be understood as disconnected bits of industry news. They are, when put together, clues that show us where power is moving, what kinds of companies are being built, which parts of the music value chain are becoming strategically important, and how the future conditions for artists, workers, labels, and listeners are being shaped.
Put more simply, the thesis is: investment power matters and we should make it legible!
Head over to MUSICx and give it a read! Subscribe! And, as always, let me know what you think!