Profits from music back catalogues dry up for Hipgnosis

Making money from buying up music back catalogues looked attractive when interest rates were low. Now, not so much.

December 31 2023 Nile Rodgers performs during Dick Clarks New Years Rockin Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2024 in Hollywood California Photo by Gilbert FloresPenske Media via Getty Images
(Image credit: Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty Images)

Under the swashbuckling leadership of its founder Merck Mercuriadis, Hipgnosis was one of the dazzling successes of the London stockmarket over the last decade, and proof, if you wished to look at it that way, that for all its current problems, the City was still good at financial innovation. 

A hugely successful former music industry executive, Mercuriadis teamed up with songwriter and performer Nile Rodgers – one of the leaders of Chic, and a collaborator with David Bowie and Madonna – to raise a fund that would acquire the rights to song catalogues.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.