Hipgnosis acquires Benny Blanco catalogue

07 August 2019 - Press release

Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited (“Hipgnosis” or the “Company”)

Acquisition of Music Catalogue

The Board of Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited and its Investment Adviser, The Family (Music) Limited, are pleased to announce that the Company has acquired a music catalogue from Benny Blanco, an American musician, songwriter and record producer who has written 29 Number 1 songs and is responsible for the sale of hundreds of millions of albums worldwide.

Benny Blanco is one of the most important songwriters of the last decade having consistently written and produced hit songs with some of the biggest global pop-artists including Halsey, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kesha, Sia, The Weeknd, Selena Gomez, Keith Urban, Tory Lanez, Wiz Khalifa, Kanye West, J Balvin and Juice Wrld.

The Catalogue includes the Number 1 songs: ‘Love Yourself’ by Justin Bieber; ‘Cold Water’ by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ; ‘Fire and the Flood’ by Vance Joy; ‘Same Old Love’ by Selena Gomez; ‘Luv’ by Tory Lanez; ‘Don't Wanna Know’ by Maroon 5 featuring Kendrick Lamar; and ‘Freaky Friday’ by Lil Dicky as well as the Platinum and Multi-Platinum certified ‘Castle on the Hill’ by Ed Sheeran; ‘2002’ by Anne-Marie and ‘Lonely Together’ by Avicii.

‘Castle on the Hill’, which was co-written and performed by Ed Sheeran, was nominated for the 2018 Ivor Novello Award for ‘Most Performed Work’ and has been certified as 4x Platinum in the UK and 3x Platinum in the US as well as being streamed over 750 million times on Spotify alone.

‘Love Yourself’, which was co-written with Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and Benny Blanco and produced by Benny Blanco, was the best performing single in the Billboard Hot 100 in 2016. It reached Number 1 in 15 countries including the UK and US where it was certified 4x Platinum and 7x Platinum respectively.

‘Cold Water’ by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ, reached Number 1 in the UK where it is certified 2x Platinum and Number 2 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart where it is certified  4x Platinum. Globally it has achieved 25 Number 1 and 45 Top 10 chart positions.

In addition to his commercial success, Benny Blanco has received significant critical acclaim and was awarded the Hal David Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013. He has also received the BMI ‘Songwriter of the Year’ award fives times, won ‘Producer of the Year’ at the 2017 iHeart Radio awards as well as being nominated for seven Grammy awards.

Hipgnosis has acquired 100% of Benny Blanco’s copyright ownership in this catalogue of songs released since 2015 which comprises 93 songs achieving 65 Number 1 and 183 Chart positions globally and which have been streamed over 10 billion times.

Benny Blanco was represented in the deal by Doug Mark, Andrew Luftman, and Zvi Edelman. 

 Merck Mercuriadis, Founder of The Family (Music) Limited and Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, said: 

“In a week when Benny is at Number 1 with Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello it’s fortuitous to have closed our deal and welcome him to the Hipgnosis family. Benny’s been having Number 1 songs for the last 12 years now, 10 of them since 2015 alone. That longevity, to be able to write Number 1 songs consistently for more than a decade and to have made incomparable contributions to establishing the most important artists of our time, is an almost impossible feat. He has literally defined the modern pop era in a way that very few others can lay claim to.”