Sony Music Group is closing in on a deal to purchase Blackstone‘s Recognition Music Group, whose catalog is dwelling to songs from Justin Bieber, Neil Younger, and others.
That’s in response to Bloomberg, which reported on Wednesday (Might 6) that Sony is in unique negotiations with the non-public fairness large in what it described as “one of many largest such offers in music historical past”.
The acquisition could be made by means of Sony‘s music rights-buying three way partnership with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, which might pay between $3.5 billion and $4 billion, the information outlet reported, citing individuals accustomed to the matter.
Bloomberg’s report follows a Billboard story from Might 1 that reported Sony was negotiating a deal for Recognition’s property.
Sony and Blackstone are pushing to finalize the settlement inside the subsequent seven days, the report stated, although Bloomberg cautioned that the talks may but collapse.
Bloomberg additional reported that “a few different entities” had tried to amass Recognition, with at the least one making “an unsolicited supply it believed to be larger than Sony‘s bid” — although Blackstone declined to share information with a few of these rival bidders, the information outlet stated.
Sony Music Publishing already administers the Recognition catalog, the report famous.
An settlement on the figures cited by Bloomberg would mark Sony‘s third, and by far its largest, acquisition of property from the previous Hipgnosis portfolio.
Sony Music Publishing purchased a $200 million-plus tranche of Recognition property from Blackstone in February, in a deal beforehand coated by MBW that included publishing rights and grasp recording royalty streams to songs by Jeff Bhasker and Jack Antonoff.
That February transaction adopted Sony Music Publishing‘s June 2025 acquisition of Hipgnosis Songs Group, previously generally known as Massive Deal Music, in a deal sources informed Billboard was price round $70 million.
Recognition Music Group, shaped in March 2025 when Blackstone consolidated its Hipgnosis property below a brand new model, has a portfolio of greater than 45,000 songs throughout over 145 catalogs that the corporate both owns outright or administers, with marquee artists additionally together with Rihanna, Beyoncé, Leonard Cohen and Justin Timberlake.
The corporate is led by CEO Ben Katovsky, who took the reins after Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis stepped away from the agency in July 2024.
Blackstone assembled the Recognition portfolio over a number of years.
A London-based Blackstone tactical alternatives crew spent round $800 million on music property by way of Hipgnosis Songs Capital from 2021, earlier than buying Hipgnosis Songs Fund from its UK public buyers for $1.58 billion in July 2024.
That latter transaction gave the Hipgnosis Songs Fund portfolio an enterprise worth of roughly $2.2 billion on the time, in response to MBW‘s evaluation.
Bloomberg reported that Hipgnosis, below Mercuriadis‘s management, had acquired Bieber‘s catalog for “greater than $200 million,” and songs from Justin Timberlake in a deal the Wall Avenue Journal reported on the time was price $100 million.
The Recognition catalog backed two asset-backed securitizations below Blackstone‘s possession: a $1.47 billion bond deal in November 2024, and a $372 million issuance in July 2025.
In response to a Kroll report based mostly on a third-party valuation as of March 31, 2025, the catalog backing these bond offers was valued at $2.95 billion, inclusive of $340.8 million in extra property that Recognition had added.
Sony shaped its three way partnership with GIC in January, in a partnership Bloomberg reported would make investments between $2 billion and $3 billion in music property.
“Partnering with GIC brings collectively long-term capital and Sony Music Group‘s operational capabilities to amass and handle premier catalogs, creating new alternatives for artists’ and songwriters’ music globally,” Kevin Kelleher, Sony Music‘s Chief Working Officer, stated in a press release on the time.
Bloomberg famous that UMG, Sony Music and WMG have every turned to investor-backed JVs in recent times to maintain tempo with non-public fairness bidders resembling Apollo and KKR — automobiles that allow the majors pursue bigger catalogs with out stretching their very own steadiness sheets.
If accomplished, the Sony–Recognition settlement could be the most recent in a run of large-scale music trade M&A this yr.
Bertelsmann‘s BMG and Harmony confirmed their merger on April 28 in a deal that, per MBW sources, values the mixed entity at round $15 billion, whereas Major Wave Music in March confirmed its acquisition of Kobalt from Francisco Companions.
Blackstone and Sony Music declined to remark to Bloomberg.Music Enterprise Worldwide
