When Merck Mercuriadis was eight years old, an older cousin arrived from Greece (from where his ancestors emigrated) to settle with him and his family in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and brought a veritable arsenal of vinyl records in his luggage, presuming that he knew everything about women, drugs and music. “We got along very well, because all three things interested me greatly,” says the founder of Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, the investment fund that just bought the rights to Shakira’s song catalog.
Canadian music entrepreneur Merck Mercuriadis
Almost half a century later, it is to be assumed that Merck has done reasonably well with women (he is married with four children) and his relationship with drugs (if he has any) is his business, but what is clear is who learned a lot from his cousin when it comes to music, because he has revolutionized the industry with a company that is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a cross between a mutual fund and a talent management firm.
NEW CULTURAL BUSINESSES
The company that has bought the rights to Shakira, among others, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a cross between an investment fund and a talent management firm.
Thanks to an overflowing personality, the ability to enthuse, and a long and formidable list of contacts from his time as artist manager, Mercuariadis, a 57-year-old Canadian born in Quebec, launched his Hipgnosis three years ago and immediately captured a billion dollars. dollars of capital to acquire intellectual property (songs), with investors of all kinds, some as unexpected as the Church of England. Its promise is that music is a reference value, like gold or diamonds, safe in times of crisis and quite oblivious to fluctuations. And whoever follows him will get rich, obscenely rich.
The Greek-born music entrepreneur has managed to adapt like few others to the new universe of online publishing, downloading and streaming, phenomena further encouraged by the pandemic. He pays the rights at the price of gold (up to triple that of the competitors, the record companies are climbing the walls), but in that way he is managing to get a fabulous catalog of which Shakira is the last pearl, and in which They also include Neil Young (he bought 50% of the rights to his work), Barry Manilow, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, Andy Marvel, Blondie, Chrissie Hynde, Enrique Iglesias or the Kaiser Chiefs. Every time a song is played, on the radio, in a bar, a supermarket or in a movie, it collects royalties. His partner is Nile Rodgers, producer, composer and co-founder of the Chic group, and the objective of both is to control between 15% and 20% of the market.
The songs of Chrissie Hynde, singer of the Pretenders, are also in the hands of the Canadian magnate
When he was nineteen years old, and with the music bug in his body since his cousin’s arrival from Greece, he started calling Virgin Records offices in Toronto every day until he got a job in the marketing department. . But what he really wanted was to operate on the creative side of the business, in contact with artists, so he moved to London, a mecca of pop music, where he entered Sanctuary Music, a growing company that managed the career of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Despite getting killed with their songwriter and lead singer, they ended up being friends: he released his 1992 album Fear of the Dark at full blast.
In 2000 he changed the English capital for New York as president of the North American branch of the company, in charge of the development of the brand. For that, he added Beyoncé, Axl Rose and Guns N’Roses among others to the list of clients, but expenses increased, income did not meet expectations, a good part of the staff was fired, and eventually Sanctuary was acquired by Universal Records for 41 million dollars. Mercuriadis took it as a personal failure and learned the lessons. When Spotify was born, it saw a goldmine in streaming and the ability for subscribers to create their favorite playlists by mixing genres and artists.
After founding Hipgnosis and going public in 2018, the first thing he did was buy 75% of The Dream’s catalog, and in the first year alone, the shares rose ten percent, and profits reached 15 million. Dollars. In the process of expansion and with the purpose of diversifying, it has a staff of nineteen employees in the offices of the London borough of Notting Hill, and diverse investors, some music fans, others just making money. A lot of money.
A DIFFERENT APPROACH
In three years, Mercuaridis and his partner Nile Rodgers have bought more than eight thousand songs, a thousand of which were once ‘number ones’
In the three years since Hipgnosis went public, Merck Mercuaridis and its partner Nile Rodgers have purchased more than eight thousand songs, one thousand of which were once number ones. While most of his rivals try to discover talent and buy cheap the catalogs of promises in which he sees potential to develop them and find gold from time to time, the Canadian businessman is only interested in proven values, for which he does not mind paying more than anyone else. . His are the rights to Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars, Shape of You by Ed Sheehan, Closer by the Chainsmokers, Girls Like You by Maroon 5, Despacito by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber. His first acquisition was Neil Young, from whom he bought 50% of his catalog, and then others such as Timbaland, Jack Antonoff, Steve Winwood, The Chainsmokers, Poo Bear, Rick James, the Kaiser Chiefs, Brian Kennedy, Lindsey Buckingham and Shakira.
–
