Sony To Pay Almost $4B For Music Rights Of Justin Bieber, Shakira, And More: Report

• Recognition Music Group owns the rights to over 45,000 songs and 150 catalogs. 
• Sony plans to buy Recognition through a joint venture with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
• Justin Bieber, Shakira, and Neil Young are among the artists whose publishing rights Recognition owns.

Sony Group Corporation (SONY) stock gained about 3% on Wednesday amid media reports that stated the company is finalizing a deal to acquire a music catalog from Blackstone-owned Recognition Music Group for $4 billion, making among the largest music deals. 

Sony is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Recognition Music Group, which either owns or manages the rights to more than 45,000 songs and recordings from nearly 150 catalogs. Sony plans to buy Recognition through a joint venture with the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, which will pay between $3.5 billion and $4 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.

Sony and Blackstone are trying to close the deal within the next week, but it could fall apart as a few entities have made offers higher than Sony’s bid, the report said. While Blackstone has declined to share data on all the bidders, Sony seems to be the top choice, it added. 

The Sony deal would be the third multi-billion-dollar music deal in the last few months, following the merger of Concord with BMG and the sale of Kobalt to Primary Wave Music. Investors have plowed billions of dollars into music catalogs even as growth in the global music market has slowed, the report noted. 

Recognition has rights to the music of some of the largest names in the music industry. 50 Cent, Justin Bieber, Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, and The Chainsmokers are among the many top-tier artist catalogs the firm owns. 

The music rights market has shifted from a niche "passion" investment to a massive asset class dominated by private equity firms (like Blackstone and Apollo) and major music groups backed by sovereign wealth funds.

Recent Private Equity Music Deals 

In July 2024, Blackstone completed its takeover of the London-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund. This was a pivotal moment for private equity in the music industry. It included over 45,000 songs from icons like Neil Young, Rihanna, and Justin Timberlake. 

Blackstone then consolidated the catalogs from the takeover and created Recognition Music, which Sony now intends to buy. 

In 2025, Warner Music Group (WMG) teamed up with private equity giant Bain Capital to create a specialized investment vehicle whose intention will be to acquire such catalogs.

Sony Retail View 

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits was ‘bullish,’ and message volumes were ‘high’. 

The stock has lost 19.5% year-to-date. 

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