Future Sells Publishing Catalog to Influence Media Partners

New office space for small and start-up businesses as well as major companies is set to spring up in Salford's Media City. Councillors on the city's planning and transportation regulatory panel have approved an application by Peel Media Ltd for an 11-storey building including ground floor commercial space for drinking outlets.

EXCLUSIVE: Gang Dong-Won, the South Korean actor whose credits include the Train to Busan sequel Peninsula and most recently the Hirokazu Kore-eda-directed Broker, which premiered in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has signed with Range Media Partners.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Primary Wave Music has acquired a major stake in Joey Ramone’s music-publishing assets for around $10 million, according to people close to the transaction. Terms of the deal include non-exclusive rights to license Joey Ramone’s name and likeness, as well as income for songs across the band’s repertoire of music; the news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. While the music-catalog market has been booming for the past several years, with blockbuster deals for catalogs by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen (both for around $600 million), Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, James Brown (all around the low nine figures) and more, this is possibly the first such deal for a punk-era artist, and could open up a new field of opportunity in a rapidly narrowing market.

Country musician Blake Shelton has sold his rights in his recordings catalogue, covering releases from 2001 to 2019, to Influence Media Partners. As part of the deal, Shelton will set up a new joint venture with the company, which will allow him to continue to earn from those rights, which is nice.

Thania Garcia Influence Media Partners has acquired Blake Shelton’s catalog of master recordings, which comprises all of his commercial releases from 2001 to 2019. In the announcement, the company described the joint venture as a “groundbreaking deal” put in place “to amplify his works and entitling Blake to participate in a share of the profit generated.” Warner Music Group will continue to oversee distribution for the country singer’s catalog; further terms were not disclosed. Shelton said, “I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since my first album and single. Sometimes I still feel like the kid from Oklahoma I was back then! While a lot has changed during that time, my passion for music hasn’t. I’m excited to be working with Lylette, Rene and the team at Influence Media on so much of my catalog and to introduce my songs to the next generation of country fans.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor While there’s been no official word, Pink Floyd has been shopping its recorded-music catalog and other assets for several months, seeking as much as $500 million, according to the Financial Times, with both major music companies and investment firms as the top bidders. But sources say an explosive new interview with founding member, main songwriter and stakeholder Roger Waters — in which he makes extensive remarks about Israel, Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and other political matters that one could politely characterize as controversial — is giving at least one potential buyer cold feet and seems likely to lead others to rethink their positions. For years Waters has sounded off about politics in the press and at his concerts, most controversially Israel’s policies. But the new interview in Rolling Stone raises (or lowers) the bar considerably. While interviewer James Ball does his best to challenge some of Waters’ more far-fetched statements, the former Pink Floyd singer argues emphatically that some Jewish people in the U.S. and U.K. bear responsibility for the actions of Israel “because they pay for everything”; that well-documented accounts of Russian war crimes in Ukraine are “lies, lies, lies”; that the United States is “the most evil [country in the world] of all by a factor of at least 10 times”; that Russia’s brutal military involvement in Syria is justified because “they were there at the invitation of the Syrian government” (which is led by one of the world’s most murderous dictators, Bashar Assad), and more. (See a 12,000-word transcript of the interview here).

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In observance of World Mental Health Day on October 10, singer-songwriter Lauv has teamed up with therapy platform BetterHelp to provide up to $3 million in free therapy for any fan who applies. An outspoken advocate for mental health via his music and nonprofit Blue Boy Foundation, BetterHelp is helping to amplify his intent to de-stigmatize asking for mental-health help. Any fan new to the organization can sign up and be matched to a licensed therapist for a free month of professional therapy by visitingwww.betterhelp.com/lauv. “Lauv is a global superstar and well-known advocate for mental health,” says Alon Matas, President and Founder of BetterHelp. “We’re excited to work with an artist who is as passionate as we are about reducing the stigma around mental health and spreading awareness of free therapy resources to millions of people.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Jack Harlow Partners With American Express to Present ‘Louisville by Jack Harlow’ Jack Harlow has partnered with American Express to present “Louisville by Jack Harlow,” a special concert taking place at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday, October 12. According to the announcement, the show, which is part of the company’s Member Week and is exclusively for card members, “will transport fans deep into Harlow’s world, paying homage to the rapper’s hometown of Louisville, KY and give fans an up-close-and-personal taste of Harlow’s favorite small businesses, artists, and restaurants.”
 The show will be livestreamed on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel and Card Members will have exclusive access to a custom merchandise collection from Louisville illustrator, Bri Bowers, known for her depictions of Louisville’s neighborhoods & landmarks. Her “Jack Harlow x American Express” collection will be sold IRL and online; all other merch items will be sold online.

With a smorgasbord of greatest hits past and perhaps present, Saturday Night Live went successfully mega-meta tonight in the sometime bubbling over cold open of its Season 48 debut.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor As has been well documented, the 2018, Scooter Braun-led acquisition of Big Machine Music Group — and the rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums — caused some controversy. Swift — who had attempted, unsuccessfully, to acquire the rights herself — was outraged, launching not only a global dialog about artists owning the rights to their work, but sticking it to the new owners by beginning a campaign to re-record all of those albums and encouraging her fans to stream the new “Taylor’s Versions” instead of the earlier ones; two such albums have been released to great success. She had few kind words for Braun in the process. Braun bore the substantial wrath of the Swifties for a year or two before selling off the catalog (for a tidy profit) and said he had attempted to speak with the singer about the issue multiple times after the sale was finally revealed, to little avail. He has since sold his own company to the South Korean entertainment powerhouse HYBE, and continues to run it and manage the careers of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and others.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Centricus has acquired a majority stake in SK Global Entertainment, the independent film and television production and finance company behind “Crazy Rich Asians.” The pact is in in the low to mid nine figures, according to a source with knowledge of the transaction. The deal will provide SK Global with capital to grow its company, potentially through mergers and acquisitions, a well as provide more financing to expand its slate of content. The company plans to double its output, producing four to five movies annually and at least five series. Earlier this year, SK Global acquired Critical Content, a production company focused on unscripted television series such as MTV’s “Catfish” and Netflix’s “Get Organized with The Home Edit.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The family of Avicii, the late, multi-platinum-selling Swedish DJ, has sold 75% of his master recordings and publishing to Pophouse Entertainment, the Stockholm-based company co-founded by ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, which is behind that group’s multi-million-dollar “Voyage” show in London and other enterprises. The family and estate will maintain ownership of the remaining 25%. Terms of the deal, which is estimated to be for nine figures, were not disclosed. According to the announcement, a joint venture has been created between the family and estate of Avicii (real name: Tim Bergling) and Pophouse “to safeguard Avicii’s indelible legacy through future global endeavours,” such as the interactive tribute museum in Stockholm, “Avicii Experience,” that Pophouse and the Bergling family together opened in February.

Future has sold the publishing rights to his recorded output from 2004 to 2020 to the investment firm Influence Media Partners.Variety reports that the catalogue contains 612 titles including collaborations with Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna and The Weeknd. The deal is reportedly in the “high eight figures”.Based on the cited time period, Influence Media likely now owns the publishing rights to all of Future’s nine studio albums, ranging from his 2012 debut ‘Pluto’ through to 2020’s ‘High Off Life’.

EXCLUSIVE: Danny Treibatch has joined Range Media Partners as a Partner in their digital department. In his new role, he’ll be representing digital and podcast talent as well as working alongside the larger Range roster as they look to expand their brands and monetize content in new ways.

Influence Media Partners has acquired Future’s publishing catalogue. The company announced its acquisition deal via PR Newswire on Tuesday, specifying that it now represents all the songs in the rapper's back catalogue from 2004-2020. This includes 612 titles.

Future has sold his publishing catalog to Influence Media Partners, the company announced in a press release Tuesday afternoon. A source told Variety that the deal was finalized in the “high eight figures.” “I put everything into my music, and I wanted to make sure these were in good hands as I thought about the next chapter of these songs,” Future is quoted as saying in the release.

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