Influence Media is a firm that buys music rights.
Their portfolio includes music rights from artists Future, Enrique Iglesias and Blake Shelton.
Influence has raised $360m by privately securitizing music royalties from part of its catalog.
Investors included Alfac, Nuveen, Pacific Life, PPM America, and accounts managed by HPS Investment Partners.
Placement agents – BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Truist.
Deal counsel – Latham & Watkins.
Influence was founded in 2019. This is their first securitization. They have bought over 30 sets of music rights so far.
Influence’s investment strategy is to find “modern evergreens” – new songs that they think will continue to sell well in the future.
The music rights asset class is continuing to grow.
Other recent music-royalty backed securitization deals include – a $1.5bn public deal in November from Blackstone’s Hipgnosis (Shakira, Red Hot Chili Peppers, 50 Cent, Bon Jovi, Fleetwood Mac, the Chainsmokers, Journey, Eurythmics), a $850m public deal in November from Concord (the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, Phil Collins, Kiss, Carrie Underwood), a $80m private deal in October by Duetti, a $267m public deal and $450m private facility in March by Kobalt (The Foot Fighters, Paul McCartney, Busta Rhymes), and a $500m private deal in March by HarbourView (Nelly, Wiz Khalifa, Luis Fonsi, Incubus, Fleetwood Mac).