Downtown Music Holdings has reportedly secured an expanded $500 million credit facility from Bank of America. Photo Credit: Rubaitul Azad
Downtown Music Holdings has reportedly secured an additional half-billion-dollar credit facility to bankroll indie advances.
The 17-year-old company’s $500 million credit-facility expansion came to light in a Bloomberg piece today. At the time of this writing, Downtown itself didn’t appear to have published a formal release on the subject.
Running with the mentioned article, though, the Downtown Publishing parent specifically obtained “an additional $500 million for lending to musicians.” As we reported in March of 2022, the New York City-based business’s previous Bank of America credit line provided access to as much as $200 million.
In a cited interview, Downtown Music CEO Pieter van Rijn indicated that his company had outperformed “‘initial predictions on the fund.’” While additional details should emerge sooner rather than later, the development underscores the ample capital that’s continuing to float around the industry in one form or another.
To be sure, 2024 has also delivered several massive song-rights deals and capital commitments – the most significant being the 50 percent Michael Jackson catalog stake that Sony Music acquired at a reported $1.2 billion valuation in February.
Earlier today, Warner Music head Robert Kyncl relayed that a number of other buyouts (song rights as well as businesses) could be in the cards for his own company, which had explored and ultimately opted against the purchase of Believe.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley-partnered Kobalt said in March that refinancing and other steps had boosted its total “funding capacity” past $1 billion. That same month, HarbourView Equity Partners revealed “close to $500 million” in royalties-backed debt financing from KKR.
Then, April saw Reservoir Media announce an up to $100 million offering, with Cutting Edge Group disclosing $500 million in debt refinancing. And to end the month, Blackstone bid almost $1.6 billion for Hipgnosis Songs Fund – an offer that Concord, which had been vying for the collection of high-profile IP, doesn’t intend to top.
Notwithstanding these points and a series of important acquisitions – ranging from IP (Primary Wave’s deal for the catalog of Neil Sedaka) to companies (the Armada Music fund’s purchase of Cloud 9 Music) – 2024’s capital-related developments haven’t been entirely positive.
Most conspicuously, funding remains well beneath 2023 levels, with only a couple rounds unveiled in April as monitored by DMN Pro’s Music Industry Funding Tracker. One of those two raises is attributable to Superlogic (formerly OneOf), which, despite counting as a board member former Warner Music head Stephen Cooper, doesn’t operate solely within the core industry.
