Singer Nelly Furtado, the singer whose hit “I’m Like a Bird” won a Grammy award in 2001, is set to become the latest recording artist to sell the rights to her back catalogue.
Sky News reports that the Canadian artist is close to signing a deal with Hipgnosis Song Management, the investment advisor to London-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd.
Two Decades (00s | 10s)#nellyfurtado #aliciakeys #norahjones #britneyspears #jojo #jenniferlopez #pink #sarabareilles #beyonce #colbiecaillat #mileycyrus #avrillavigne #rihanna #demilovato #lanadelrey #carrieunderwood #mirandalambert #kellyclarkson #arianagrande #tinashe pic.twitter.com/tmH1JVGG9R
— DW TD (@DWTWODECAD) April 28, 2022
Hipgnosis, which buys up the rights to the back catalogues of musicians, songwriters and producers, has been on a roll recently, with its share price rallying to 116.2p from a low of 102.6p in early March.
READ Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited caught in the Neil Young/Spotify crossfire
The company’s shares came under pressure after the great Spotify/Neil Young stand-off in February. Hipgnosis acquired 50% of the worldwide copyright and income from Neil Young’s back catalogue in January of last year, and it has been estimated that Young would lose around 10% of his annual revenues as a result of boycotting Spotify.
At the time of the Young-Spotify spat, investors were worried that Young’s decision to leave the music streaming service would prompt other big-selling recording stars to quit Spotify and lead to fans deserting the service for competitors, such as Pandora or Deezer.
In its earnings update yesterday Spotify implied that the number of paying customers that left its service as a result of the controversy was minimal.
Spotify boasted that it saw the number of paying subscribers rise to 182mln in the first quarter of 2022 from 180mln in the preceding quarter and 15% higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2021, despite jettisoning around 1.5mln premium subscribers in Russia.
“Excluding the impact of our exit from Russia, subscriber growth exceeded expectations," the company said.
The market appeared to disagree, fearing that the company was facing the sort of ex-growth scenario that has prompted the collapse in the share price of Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX).
Shares in Spotify slumped 12.4% yesterday, hitting a new low. It is now valued at less than US$19bn, having been worth a cool US$69bn back in February 2021, when the world and her dog was listening to the streaming service during lockdown.