If it seems like a remarkable number of larger-than-life legacy artists have sold the rights to their catalogs lately for astonishing price tags, it’s very likely the work of Merck Mercuriadis, CEO of Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Hipgnosis is disrupting the music industry by dropping big bucks on artists’ songs and transforming them into an investable asset class. In this episode of Musonomics, host Larry Miller analyzes how the valuations of artists’ catalogs are calculated through historical and economic factors and then speaks to Merck Mercuriadis about the present and future state of his company, and pop songwriter/producer Tricky Stewart — along with his brother and business partner Mark Stewart — about Tricky’s sale to Hipgnosis.
Read full transcript of episode.