Tempo Music Investments, launched by Providence Equity Parnters in 2019 with a $650 million war chest, announced a spate of acquisitions it has made since its inception, which consists of the music catalogs of Wiz Khalifa, Florida Georgia Line, Brett James, Mia Fieldes, Philip Lawrence and Malay.
“In the 18 months since Tempo was launched, we’ve quietly been making strategic acquisitions from some of today’s top song-writing talent,” Tempo CEO Josh Empson said in a statement. “Today, I’m excited to announce that Tempo has built a diverse, best-in-class portfolio, with significant investible capital to keep growing.”
Prior to this announcement, Tempo had been known for its acquisitions of select copyrights of the song catalogs of Jeff Bhasker, Shane McAnally and Ben Rector.
“Tempo has quickly become a leading investment platform with a diverse range of catalogs that allows artists the opportunity to continue to participate in the business of their catalog moving forward,” Tempo senior advisor Rob Walker said in a statement. “We are musician friendly and innovative in the way we approach the music. We are thrilled to be partnering with a myriad of talent and support their art.”
Khalifa said in a statement that he was excited to be partnering with Temp Music. “Their approach to artists and music is impressive as well as collaborative,” Khalifa added. “I’m looking forward to our continued growth.”
But in making the announcement about the acquisitions, other than reporting it made investments in the above catalogs, Tempo—which has a partnership with the Warner Music Group that provides the music investment firm with services—didn’t give much details about the deals, except to say the artists/songwriters can continue to participate “in the business” of their catalogs moving forward.
For example, it didn’t report how much it spent collectively on those acquisitions, nor if it bought the publishing ownership or songwriter royalties or both for any of the acquisitions; nor did it say if it bought the producer royalties of Malay or Lawrence, in addition to whatever specific publishing royalties were purchased from those creators.
