Sony has spent an average of $91 million on music catalog acquisitions per month over the past 10 months

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Sony spent approximately $911 million acquiring the music catalog in the 10 months to February 2022.

Statistics were recently revealed by Sony CorpExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Hiroki Totoki, in a presentation to investors led by Worldwide music business.

About half of that 911 million will go to Sony twice acquired Bruce Springsteen’s publishing catalog and his recorded music catalogas announced last December.

Sources say the price of that dual deal was around $550 million, although not all of that money was in Sony’s money: the major music company did supported by additional funds from Eldridge Industries in the publishing business of the Springsteen acquisition.

It is interesting to note how much more money Sony has put into the portfolio investment space compared to what Universal Music Group expenditure in the calendar year 2021.

As recently reported by MBW, Universal has confirmed that spent $459 million invest in the music portfolio in 2021.

That number is down 58% year-on-year, even though UMG increased its category spending in Q1 2022 – including a deal worth 300 million dollars for Sting’s catalog of songs, plus a deal for Neil Diamond songs and recorded music catalogs.

Hiroki Totoki told Sony Corp investors in February that about 100 billion yen (about $911 million at annual exchange rates) in music catalog acquisitions has been allocated to cash flow. Sony’s performance in financial figures for the period April 2021 – February 2022.

He explained that this investment in the artist/writer portfolio is separate from other investments and acquisitions Sony has made in the music sector in the previous year. Such transactions include $430 million the company paid to buy AWAL are from Kobalt music group in May 2021, and $255 million it paid to acquire the Brazilian brand Som Livre.

In his presentation, Hiroki Totoki provided the chart below that analyzes the approximately 850 billion yen ($7.74 billion) outlay that Sony has made on strategic investments outside of its music portfolio over the period. April 2021 – February 2022.

This chart seems to indicate that Sony’s (out-of-category) music investments account for about 18% of this amount, valued in the region at $1.4 billion.

Speaking on February 2, Hiroki Totoki clarified that the 850 billion deals he was referring to include those that “have been decided, but not yet closed”.

In addition to the Bruce Springsteen portfolio purchase, Sony’s 2021 portfolio investments include spending north 150 million dollars on Bob Dylan’s record catalog last summer.

In addition, the company announced last March that it had acquired Paul Simon publishing rights in a deal rumored to be worth up to $200 million.

Major non-music acquisitions made by Sony Corp in the past year include $3.6 billion deal to acquire video game maker, Bungie, was announced in January of this year.

In December of last year, Sony Pictures confirmed that they have agree to a merger with Zee Entertainment in India, to create that country’s second largest entertainment network.

The merger resulted in a joint venture in which Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) is a 51% shareholder.

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