Lousada and Greenwald appear to be 50\/50<\/strong> stakeholders in both businesses. Companies House documents reveal that British exec Lousada and New Yorker Greenwald each own “more than 25% but not more than 50%”<\/strong> in the firms.<\/p>\n And that’s… pretty much all we know \u2013 for now.<\/p>\n The Times of London<\/em> reported<\/a> over the weekend that Lousada<\/strong> and Greenwald<\/strong> are “understood to be sounding out partners to help finance a joint venture”.<\/p>\n Yet in truth, the duo’s UK companies could just as easily be placeholders. The industry awaits confirmation of any more details.<\/p>\n Despite that lack of detail, the company names themselves might offer early hints at how Lousada<\/strong> and Greenwald<\/strong> are thinking.<\/p>\n For starters, 26.2<\/strong>\u00a0is the distance of a marathon in miles \u2013 perhaps a nod to the duo’s long-sighted approach to artist development<\/strong> (vs. a sprint).<\/p>\n But the clear distinction between ‘Music’ <\/strong>and ‘Services’<\/strong> could hint at something even more significant.<\/p>\n The naming structure suggests\u00a0that Lousada and Greenwald are considering a model that explicitly separates\u00a0ownership\/acquisition of music assets<\/strong> from their development and exploitation<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n If MBW had to guess?<\/p>\n ‘26.2 Music’<\/strong> could acquire assets, both from established artists and rightsholders \u2013 but also from specialists in artist development.<\/p>\n And ‘26.2 Services’<\/strong>? That could (obviously) offer independent artists services \u2013 but could also develop<\/em> music assets in tandem with those artists… which could then ultimately be acquired by ‘26.2 Music’<\/strong>.<\/p>\n As we say, just guesswork at this stage \u2013 but such a setup would play neatly into Greenwald and Lousada’s<\/strong> rich history of nurturing artists via patient A&R… before maximizing their potential with global hits.<\/p>\n Some argue that holding owned assets separately from an operating music exploitation company is beneficial to investors<\/strong> because the rights themselves might carry a stronger multiple when valued alone.<\/p>\n Lousada<\/strong> and Greenwald<\/strong> have likely considered this when holding talks with potential backers for their two companies.<\/p>\n Music’s two biggest public rights companies \u2013 Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group \u2013 are currently structured so that their\u00a0owned rights and operational structures<\/strong> are\u00a0<\/span>combined, rather than ‘split out’ into separate entities<\/span>.<\/p>\n That said, both UMG<\/strong> and WMG<\/strong> have recently launched sister ventures that focus exclusively on asset ownership.<\/p>\n Chord Music Partners<\/strong> is a joint venture between Dundee Partners and UMG, with Dundee the majority owner; Chord’s<\/strong> publishing and recorded music catalogs are typically serviced by UMG<\/strong> worldwide.<\/p>\n The assets of Chord<\/strong> \u2013 which include rights associated with major artists like The Weeknd, Lorde<\/strong>, David Guetta<\/strong> and more \u2013 were valued at USD $1.85 billion<\/strong> in 2024.<\/p>\n Chord has since significantly increased that value by raising<\/a> over $2 billion<\/strong>, and spending nine-figure sums<\/strong> acquiring prized assets such as a stake<\/a> in Morgan Wallen’s<\/strong> master recordings catalog.<\/p>\n Warner Music Group<\/strong>, meanwhile, launched a rights-acquisition-focused JV<\/a> with\u00a0Bain Capital<\/strong> last year,<\/span>\u00a0with $1.2 billion<\/strong> in spending power.<\/p>\n That venture, Beethoven JV 1 LLC<\/strong>, is 50\/50 owned by Warner and Bain, with access to up to $700 million in debt funding.<\/p>\n Like Chord at UMG, Beethoven’s<\/strong> assets (once existing contracts with external industry partners have expired) are expected to be distributed and\/or administered by WMG<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In recent years, other companies in the music industry have tested variations of ‘splitting’ the ownership and exploitation of music rights.<\/p>\n Downtown Music Holdings<\/strong>, for example, sold its owned catalog of 145,000 copyrights to Concord<\/a> in 2021 for around USD<\/strong> $400 million<\/strong>, then forged ahead with a services-only model<\/a>.<\/p>\n Downtown’s remaining services-only business is shortly expected to be acquired by Universal Music Group<\/strong> for around USD $775 million<\/strong>, so long as European regulators give it the green light. (The most likely scenario, we hear: Universal offloads<\/a> Curve Royalty Systems<\/strong> to a willing buyer, alleviating EC competition concerns.)<\/p>\n Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) <\/strong>was a rights-focused vehicle that largely outsourced administration and exploitation services to industry partners.<\/p>\n The rights portfolio of HSF, now owned by Blackstone\/Recognition<\/strong>, was valued at USD $2.61 billion<\/strong>\u00a0by Kroll Bond Rating Agency in March last year. <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n That’s some $400 million more than the\u00a0$2.2 billion<\/strong> Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis spent to acquire the assets<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n However, for large music companies, there are arguably potential downsides<\/strong> to separating their rights ownership ‘basket’ and their rights development\/exploitation operation.<\/p>\n For one, steady cash flow from owned catalog helps today’s large music companies subsidize bets<\/strong> on new artist development \u2013 a safety net that could be diminished if catalog profits must first satisfy a separate group of shareholders.<\/p>\n There’s also the risk of added complexity<\/strong>: running two companies might require separate boards, reporting requirements, and contractual arrangements, adding unavoidable overhead and potential friction.<\/p>\n Both Max Lousada and Julie Greenwald exited WMG<\/a> in 2024, with Lousada departing after 20 years at the company, including eight as CEO of Recorded Music.<\/p>\n
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