Twice a year, a Beatles memoriabilia auction is held near Liverpool — and this year, the star item was a set of recorded interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, conducted by a Canadian journalist.
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When the world’s most famous band The Beatles made their seminal trip to India in 1968, not only did it inspire a new musical direction
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She got nine British pounds for her Beatles gig — about $190 in today’s money.
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PARIS, Sept 20 — Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest label whose lineup features The Beatles, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift, is set for a huge stock market debut tomorrow. The company is based in the US but owned by French media…
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(WSJ) Vivendi spinoff of Universal Music Group, expected Tuesday, will leave the French conglomerate bereft of its most lucrative business and will test the market’s appetite for music as an asset class.The world’s largest music company, behind stars including Taylor Swift, Drake and the Beatles, will debut on Amsterdam’s Euronext stock exchange with shares to be distributed to Vivendi’s investors. The move comes amid rising interest in the resurgent music business as an investment and following a recent boom in the value of music catalogs, music-streaming companies and technology for creators.Analysts value Universal Music above €40 billion, equivalent to about $46.9 billion, higher than recent estimates and transactions indicate. In August, the company was valued at €33 billion, when billionaire William Ackman bought a 10% interest through his Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. hedge fund. The purchase came after Mr. Ackman scrapped ambitious plans to use his special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, to invest in Universal, citing Securities and Exchange Commission concerns.Last year, Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd. doubled its stake in Universal to about 20% in a deal that valued the business at about €30 billion.When the shares list, the Tencent-led consortium will have a 20% stake, and Mr. Ackman’s entities and Vivendi each will have 10%. The rest will be distributed to each Vivendi shareholder. As a result, French investor and former chairman of Vivendi Vincent Bolloré will hold an 18% stake. There are no restrictions on investors that would keep them from selling the shares upon receiving them.Tencent and Mr. Ackman have expressed interest in holding Universal long-term. Vivendi said it would hold on to its stake for at least two years to remain associated and for tax reasons. Whether Mr. Bolloré chooses to hold on to his stake—which would be worth roughly €6 billion at a €33 billion valuation—will be closely watched by investors and analysts.Because Mr. Bolloré controls Vivendi via a 27% stake, that means he will control some 28% of Universal either directly or indirectly. People close to Mr. Bolloré said it was unclear what the tycoon would do with his stake, though they expect he will likely hold on to it for a while.Mr. Ackman has laid out a bullish case for music, pronouncing it a better streaming business than video and drawing comparisons to the software industry. “You need food and water to live, but music comes next,” Mr. Ackman said. “If you own UMG, you own a royalty on people listening to music.”At its capital markets day presentation to analysts last month, Universal executives said they expect revenue to grow by more than 10% this year at constant currencies, and profit to rise by double that amount.The targets led Barclays to increase its valuation of the company to €41.4 billion from €38.5 billion. JPMorgan analysts said they believe their base case value of €54 billion “will prove conservative.”Once public, analysts say, Universal will be the best way to participate in the music market. Competitor Sony Music Entertainment is accessible only as a small piece of Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corp. ; Warner Music Group Corp. has less than 15% of its stock listed publicly and is controlled by billionaire Len Blavatnik.Universal’s prospectus outlines the growth prospects of the music business, in which it commands some 40% market share. The more big acts it has under its umbrella, the more Universal makes from its licensing agreements with music-streaming services, such as those offered by Spotify Technology SA, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Nine of the top 10 recording artists of 2020, by sales—and slices of the 10th—are on its roster, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.After years of decimation because of piracy and plummeting CD sales, the music industry has been growing since 2016, thanks to the rise of music streaming. “Even with its strong growth in recent years, UMG believes streaming is still in the early stages of global penetration,” the music company said, pointing to technological innovations across devices and formats such as voice-controlled speakers and connected cars. It also highlighted music’s intersection with social media and gaming, and licensing opportunities in digital health and fitness industries.Vivendi is cashing in on its longtime prized asset. The French company, which dates back to the middle of the 19th century, will be left with businesses that include French pay-TV group Canal Plus, ad-holding firm Havas and publishing company Editis, as well as small divisions like the videogame maker Gameloft. (On Wednesday, Vivendi struck a deal to increase its stake in French media group Lagardère SA to 45.1% and indicated its intent to take over the entire company.)Vivendi has held Universal since 2000, when it bought the media assets of Canadian conglomerate Seagram Co., then controlled by the Bronfman family.Mr. Bolloré has made a fortune over the past three decades by seizing control of businesses, often without paying a premium. It took Mr. Bolloré less than two years to effectively take control of Vivendi after exchanging some pay-TV operations he owned for a small stake. Though his holding company remains Vivendi’s No. 1 shareholder, Mr. Bolloré was replaced on Vivendi’s board by his son, Cyrille, in 2019, one year after another son, Yannick, succeeded him as chairman.Mr. Bolloré’s handling of Universal has further enhanced his reputation as one of Europe’s more skilled, if sometimes unpredictable, corporate tacticians. Since Mr. Bolloré took the helm, Vivendi has rebuffed offers for Universal, when the music company was valued at far less than it is today.In 2015, Vivendi ignored calls from the U.S. hedge fund P. Schoenfeld Asset Management to sell some or all of Universal and use the funds to boost cash returns. In 2013, Vivendi rejected an $8.5 billion offer for Universal from Japan’s SoftBank Corp.Internally, Universal management has enjoyed a hands-off approach, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Bolloré backed Chief Executive Lucian Grainge on acquisitions and let the company’s results, which have outperformed any other Vivendi unit by sales and profit, speak for themselves, the people said.As streaming revenue rose in recent years, Vivendi repeatedly teased the idea of floating all or part of Universal, arguing that the increasing value of the music business wasn’t reflected in its own share price. Vivendi’s sales of stakes in Universal ahead of the listing added around €10 billion to the company’s coffers.Source: Wall Street Journal by Anne Steel and Nick Kostov Sept. 19, 2021 8:03 am ET
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Wish fulfilment.Over the past few weeks it’s been a lot of fun to share a huge range of music-themed features as part of the Nintendo Life VGM Festival. Much of our focus, quite rightly, has been on highlighting the amazing talents behind the soundtracks and audio design that we enjoy in games. For a little change, though, I wanted to reflect on a long-gone era when plastic instruments and wish fulfilment were all the rage – the time of Rock Band and Guitar Hero.Like The Beatles vs The Rolling Stones, or Blur vs Oasis, these two brands duked it out in during the 2000s, and in a dizzying few years we had a whole lot of rhythm games and assorted accessories flood the market. I had no allegiance either way, skipping between the IPs depending on which game took my fancy, and the legacy is a pile of colourful plastic instruments up in the loft, dusty and in one annoying case barely functional. Yet as recently as last Christmas I had them out, dutifully dusted down, for a bit of co-op music.Read the full article on nintendolife.com
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“I wish I had done one of the Mario games. Maybe Mario Party”.Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we’re speaking to a range of composers and musicians for a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we’re calling these shorter features ‘Quick Beats’.Today we’re talking to Harumi Fujita, a former Capcom composer whose work includes classic arcade games such as Final Fight, Bionic Commando, and Pulstar, and a host of 8-bit Nintendo titles including Mega Man 3, Strider, Gargoyle’s Quest, and — an absolute personal favourite — Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. She’s also contributing to the upcoming (and long-awaited) Windjammers 2.Read the full article on nintendolife.com
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From Marvel superhero epics to Broadway musicals, ‘Dune’ to a gamechanging Beatles doc — here’s what’s coming to a theater (or streaming service) near you through the end of 2021
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For a band that’s now thought of as the Beatles of heavy metal, not to mention one of the four or five greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, Led Zeppelin got shockingly little critical respect back in the day. You could say that sort of thing happens a lot — in music (just […]
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Abba was unapologetically pop at a time when socially conscious sounds of progressive rock and the revolution demanded by punk dominated the airwaves and the zeitgeist of the time…. Abba’s sound was clearly influenced by the Beatles and the growing glam roc…
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