{"id":250283,"date":"2026-02-04T13:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=250283"},"modified":"2026-02-04T13:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:16:08","slug":"blackstone-sells-part-of-recognition-music-catalog-to-sony-music-for-over-200m-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/blackstone-sells-part-of-recognition-music-catalog-to-sony-music-for-over-200m-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackstone sells part of Recognition Music catalog to Sony Music for over $200m (report)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blackstone has sold a portion of its Recognition Music Group<\/a> catalog to Sony Music Group for more than $200 million.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to<\/a> Billboard, <\/i>which cited sources as saying that the deal consists primarily of publishing rights and some master recording royalty streams.<\/p>\n

The package reportedly includes works from songwriter Jeff<\/b> Bhasker<\/b>, whose credits include co-writing Mark Ronson <\/b>and Bruno Mar<\/b>s’<\/strong> Uptown Funk <\/i>and songs recorded by Taylor<\/b> Swift<\/b>, as well as compositions from Jack<\/b> Antonoff<\/b>.<\/p>\n

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Billboard’s<\/em> article notes that Blackstone owns roughly $4 billion<\/b> in music assets, including through Recognition Music Group, which was rebranded in March 2025 after Blackstone consolidated its Hipgnosis Songs Fund holdings. Blackstone acquired Hipgnosis Songs Fund from UK public investors for $1.58 billion in July 2024, giving the portfolio an enterprise value of approximately $2.2 billion at the time.<\/p>\n

Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis left the company<\/a> in July 2024, upon Blackstone completing its acquisition of Hipgnosis Songs Fund.\u00a0Industry sources told<\/a> MBW last March that Mercuriadis retained rights to the Hipgnosis name and may use it for a new venture.<\/p>\n

In July 2025, the Financial Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that\u00a0Mercuriadis <\/strong>would be launching a new investment firm targeting artist management companies and music catalogs through a partnership structure that gives acts and their representatives ownership stakes.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0FT<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that Mercuriadis\u2019<\/strong> new venture had already secured commitments in the “hundreds of millions” of dollars, citing people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Blackstone had separately purchased about $800 million <\/b>in music assets since 2021 through Hipgnosis Songs Capital, according to Billboard.<\/i> Both portfolios were combined and renamed Recognition Music Group under CEO Ben Katovsk<\/b>y.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recognition’s catalog spans 45,000<\/b> songs from over 145<\/b> catalogs, including works by artists such as Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Rihanna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beyonc\u00e9, Leonard Cohen, Justin Timberlake, Shakira,<\/b> and many more. The portfolio has backed two asset-backed securitizations: a $1.47 billion transaction<\/a> that closed in November 2024, and a $372 million bond sale<\/a> in July 2025.<\/p>\n

According to a Kroll report, based on a third-party valuation as of March 31, 2025, the catalog backing Recognition\u2019s ABS transaction was worth USD $2.95 billion,\u00a0<\/strong>inclusive of\u00a0$340.8 million<\/strong>\u00a0in additional assets that Recognition added to it.<\/p>\n

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Billboard<\/em> reported that Blackstone’s London-based managers and the Recognition team are working to streamline the portfolio.<\/p>\n

In June, Blackstone sold<\/a> Hipgnosis Songs Group<\/b>, previously known as Big Deal Music<\/b>, to Sony Music Publishing<\/b>. Sources told Billboard<\/i> that transaction carried a price tag of about $70 million<\/b>, although terms were not made public.<\/p>\n

Blackstone first entered the music industry with its $1 billion purchase<\/a> of SESAC in January 2017, followed by the acquisition<\/a> of Entertainment One Music (eOne Music) for $385 million in cash in 2021, later renamed MNRK Music Group<\/a>. Those acquisitions were made through a different arm of Blackstone \u2014 its New York-based private equity division \u2014 rather than the London tactical opportunities team behind Recognition.<\/p>\n

While Recognition has sold some assets to Sony, sources told Billboard <\/i>that Blackstone is not pursuing an exit from music investments. However, the firm would consider selling certain assets for the right price, the report said.<\/p>\n

Billboard <\/i>also noted, citing sources, that Recognition has been exploring partnerships to handle its master recording portfolio and publishing administration once current third-party agreements expire. Sony is among the companies being considered for that role, sources told the news outlet.<\/p>\n

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For Sony Music, the reported catalog acquisition marks its latest after its Sony Music Publishing Nashville<\/b> unit teamed up with Domain Capital Group<\/b> to acquire<\/a> the catalog of artist and songwriter Miranda Lambert<\/b> last week.<\/p>\n

The deal encompasses her complete back catalog of songs.<\/p>\n

Recent acquisitions across the wider Sony Music group include the January acquisition<\/a> of Munich-based label\u00a0F.A.M.E. Recordings<\/b>, which builds on a 15-year relationship between the two companies; the purchase<\/a> of a 49% <\/b>stake in the music unit of Vietnam media giant YeaH1<\/b> in December; and its acquisition<\/a> of independent publishing and artist development company Big Yellow Dog Music<\/b> (BYD) in January.<\/p>\n

To support its M&A strategy, Sony Music Group last week formed<\/a> a music rights-buying joint venture with Singapore\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, GIC<\/b> Pte. Bloomberg<\/i>\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0that GIC and\u00a0Sony\u00a0plan to invest\u00a0$2 billion to $3 billion<\/b>\u00a0in the venture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billboard reports that the deal consists primarily of publishing rights and some master recording royalty streams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":250305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[130673,5402,134191,128819],"class_list":["post-250283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-blackstone","tag-hipgnosis-songs-fund","tag-recognition-music-group","tag-sony-music-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250283"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250338,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250283\/revisions\/250338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}