Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis Songs Fund has scored yet another critical catalog.
Hipgnosis has been on the move this year.
Mercuriadis’ music IP company has acquired stakes in several renowned songwriter catalogs in the music industry, including significant shares in the catalogs of Giorgio Tuinfort (David Guetta), Teddy Geiger (Shawn Mendes), The-Dream (Justin Bieber, Rihanna), Poo Bear (Chris Brown, Justin Bieber), Itaal Shur (Santana), Bernard Edwards (Chic), Tricky Stewart (Rihanna, Beyoncé), and TMS (Jess Glynne, Little Mix).
Three weeks ago, Hipgnosis added two more to the continually growing list – Ari Levine’s music catalog and Jamie Scott’s catalog. Levine, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer, is best known for his work as a member of the three-piece writing and producing group, The Smeezingtons. The group’s other members include Bruno Mars and Philip Lawrence. Scott, a British songwriter and producer, has penned hits for Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, and One Direction.
The latest moves come after Mercuriadis’ music IP company raised $185 million in an oversubscribed round in April. Last summer, Hipgnosis raised $260 million.
Now, Mercuriadis has added yet another key catalog to its list.
Going country.
Branching out into country music, the Board of Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited and its investment adviser, The Family (Music) Limited – also owned by Mercuriadis – has wholly acquired Michael Knox’s music catalog.
Financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed.
The American producer is best known for discovering and producing for the American country music singer Jason Aldean. Knox has produced eight albums for Aldean. Four of those releases consecutively reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.
Alongside Aldean, Michael Knox has sold over 35 million singles in addition to 18 million albums. Together, they have 22 No. 1 hits on either the Billboard Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts.
Albums include Jason Aldean (2005), Relentless (2007), Wide Open (2009), My Kinda Party (2010), Night Train (2012), Old Boots, New Dirt (2014), They Don’t Know (2016), and most recently, Rearview Town (2018).
Knox currently serves as Senior Vice President of peermusic Nashville, having previously served at Warner/Chappell Music.
Speaking about the acquisition, Mercuriadis explained,
“We’re very excited to work with Michael, Jason, Jason’s management team, the peermusic team, and Broken Bow. This is just the beginning of our endeavors in Nashville where we have the greatest respect for the creative community and its incomparable tradition of great songs!”
Knox added,
“I’m excited to be a part of the Hipgnosis movement. Merck has shown a lot of excitement and appreciation for my 20 years of hard work. It’s difficult letting go of something I love so much but finding someone as passionate about music as I am, made this transition a lot easier.”
Featured image by Hipgnosis Songs Fund.