A package of Genesis, Phil Collins and some Mike + the Mechanics music assets have sold to Concord, the company told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday (Sept. 29). Billboard originally reported on Wednesday (Sept. 28) that a deal was nearly done, but did not know the identity of the buyer. An official announcement is still forthcoming.
In January, it was reported that a package of Collins’ rights had been shopped for upwards of $200 million, according to sources. That package, sources says, morphed into a bigger deal that also includes all of the publishing for Genesis and possibly even Mike + the Mechanics, as well as their master recordings rights.
For the case of Collins, that means a combination of artist royalties for masters owned by Atlantic and his ownership stake in other Collins solo albums on the label. Sources also say that Genesis owned a significant majority of its master recordings and that the deal included all the band’s recordings — even those made when Peter Gabriel was lead singer from 1968 to 1974.
With all of this considered, the package of music rights, which sources say includes name and likeness, carries a valuation of at least $335 million and might be as much as $375 million. (This estimate is based on full ownership of the artist master recordings, and could be less depending on how much of the catalog is owned by the three recording acts and how much just includes royalty income streams.)
Sources say that the sellers had outsized expectations and that when the package was first shopped earlier in the year they were asking for opening bids of at least 250 million British pounds, which on April 30, 2022, would have been about $315 million. At current exchange rates, that now equals about $270 million.
The package supposedly also includes such Collins solo hits as “In The Air Tonight,” which according to Luminate has 7.26 million song consumption units, along with “You’ll Be In My Heart” (3.03 million units) and “Against All Odds” (2.43 million units). It also includes master recordings of Collins’ covers of “A Groovy Kind Of Love” and “You Can’t Hurry Love,” which all each have over 1 million song consumption units.
Genesis hits in the package likely include “That’s All” (1.4 million units), “Invisible Touch” (1.06 million units) and “Land of Confusion,” “In too Deep,” and “Follow You, Follow Me” (all in the 650,000 to 750,000 unit range). It may also include such Mike + The Mechanics songs as “The Living Years” (454,000 units) and “All I Need Is A Miracle” (231,000 units).
