“The amount and the quality of placements has gone up,” says Nile Rodgers,
whose 1979 hit We Are Family , which he co-wrote and produced for Sister
Sledge, recently featured in the Super Bowl trailer for Eddie Murphy’s
Coming 2 America. “So far, everybody seems happy. I haven’t encountered
people who have said, ‘I’m sorry I did this.’”
Not so long ago, it was taboo to sell the rights to your songs. “The number
one rule in music always used to be : never sell your publishing, ” says Mark
Ronson. “But Merck has upended that entire way of thought.” The fi nancial
landscape of music has changed, too. Artists who toured harder in order to
off set losses from falling album sales now fi nd themselves stuck at home due
to Covid-19. “If you are a pop star living a lavish lifestyle, your alternatives
are stark: either downscale or sell out,” says Ted Gioia. “Guess which one
they choose?” Mercuriadis concedes that the pandemic has made older
artists in particular more anxious to sell. “Many of them are at a point in their
life when they may never go back on tour again and are dotting the Is and
crossing the Ts on their estate planning.”
When songwriters sell to Hipgnosis, they surrender their legal right to
veto placements or “syncs”, so Mercuriadis has to convince them that he
will be a righteous custodian of their life’s work. He argues that handling
songs with care isn’t just morally right; it’s good business. “I know that a big
part of the value of Neil Young songs is the way that Neil has conducted
himself. You’ve got to protect that value.” In his 1988 song This Note’s for
You , Young boasted: “Ain’t singin’ for Pepsi/ Ain’t singin’ for Coke/ I don’t
sing for nobody.”
Mercuriadis tells me that he turned down a seven-fi gure off er from
McDonald’s for Sweet Dreams (Are Made O f This) by Eurythmics , which is
one of the most streamed songs from 1983. “What’s a great way to kill off
what is special about that song? Put it in a McDonald’s commercial.”
LadBaby’s naff Journey parody was a rare exception. “If I’m honest,
I wouldn’t normally have approved it because I don’t like the idea of
treating songs that way,” he says, but adds that it was for charity.
“Hipgnosis is run by a real music person fi rst and foremost,” says the
writer-producer Tim “Timbaland” Mosley , whose biggest hits include
Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack and Nelly Furtado’s Promiscuous. “More than
money, that was the key factor in my decision to do my business with them.”
Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham , whose Go Your Own Way is one of the
most streamed songs from 1976, has a similar line: “I am confi dent that my
body of work will be curated with great heart and insight.”
Some observers, however, think that the size of Mercuriadis’s cheques is
more decisive than his superfandom. Apart from The-Dream, who
was proud to publicise his £16.6 m payout , most Hipgnosis
clients bury their fi gures under NDAs. B ut
the deals are believed to be between 10
to 20 times larger than a catalogue’s
annual income. Neil Young’s payout
has been estimated at £110m.“It’s very, very competitive, and Merck’s beating everyone hands
down – because he’s paying more,” says one music industry veteran on
condition of anonymity. “When you’re selling your house, do you sell to the
person you really like, who respects the decor, or do you sell it to someone
who’s off ering more money?”
Mercuriadis, predictably, denies this. He attributes complaints to sour
grapes from rival funds who have lost out to Hipgnosis. “What are you going
to say to investors? You’re not going to say he has a better proposition. You’re
going to say he’s paying too much.” (This is, of course, his own explanation
for why he lost Bob Dylan.) Far from overpaying, he says, Hipgnosis is
snapping up bargains before growth in streaming subscriptions and new
services that rely on licensing music, from TikTok to Peloton , push the price
even higher. “There’s a sweet spot,” he says.
The current pace of acquisitions is certainly unsustainable. Pretty much
every songwriter or estate that wants to sell a catalogue is in the process of
doing so, which means the big deals will dry up sooner rather than later.
Mercuriadis gives it two years. “If I achieve everything I want to achieve,
you won’t remember that Hipgnosis had this incredibly acquisitive streak.
What you’ll remember is that Hipgnosis was the company that established
song management.”
It will take many more years before we’ll know whether Mercuriadis’s
bet on the immortality of classic songs has paid off. He is bullish (“You and
I know that Neil Young songs and Nile Rodgers songs are going nowhere”),
but Gioia is sceptical. “Songs are a depleting asset. Eventually the copyright
expires and the cashfl ows stop.” That usually means 70 years after the
author’s death, but, adds Gioia, “before that happens, the public’s changing
tastes destroy much of the fi nancial value in old music. I know music fans
believe their favourite songs will never fade away, but the reality is that even
a superstar artist has a limited shelf life.”
For now, though, Hipgnosis has the numbers on its side, and you don’t
have to understand its work to have encountered it. While writing this piece,
I watched the episode of The Crown in which Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana
ballet dances to the 1983 Eurythmics song Love Is A Stranger. It
works as a period-accurate refl ection of Diana’s isolation,
introduces a new generation to the song, and makes
older viewers (including me) want to play it for
the fi rst time in years. That, Mercuriadis
says as proudly as if he had written it
himself, is a Hipgnosis song Hipgnosis now owns the
rights to tracks by artists
from Dua Lipa and
Lady Gaga to Al Greenunder NDAs. B ut
e between 1 0
atalogue’s
g’s payout
0 m.
Ed Sheeran Shape Of You
(2.72bn streams on Spotify)
Dua Lipa New Rules (1.47bn )
Mark Ronson Uptown Funk ft Bruno Mars
(1.26bn)
Journey Don’t Stop Believin’ (995m)
Mariah Carey All I Want For Christmas
Is You (913m)
Bon Jovi Livin’ On A Prayer (695m)
Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made
Of This) (650m)
Lady Gaga Bad Romance (509m)
Fleetwood Mac Go Your Own Way
(486m)
Al Green Let’s Stay Together (282m)Money makers:
10 of the most
popular tracks in the
Hipgnosis catalogueA Prayer (695m)
t Dreams (Are Mademance (5 09 m)
o Your Own Wayy Together (282m)‘The number one rule in music
always used to be : never sell
your publishing rights.
But Merck has upended that’GETTY IMAGES (3)