Sony Music Group is forming a music rights-buying joint venture with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC Pte.
Bloomberg reports that GIC and Sony plan to invest $2 billion to $3 billion in the venture.
According to Bloomberg, Sony and GIC plan to pursue “high-quality, marquee music assets across a range of genres”.
“As a long-term investor, GIC seeks to be a creative and flexible capital partner to strategic industry leaders like Sony,” Girish Karira, head of the sovereign fund’s integrated strategies group, said in a statement.
“Partnering with GIC brings together long-term capital and Sony Music Group’s operational capabilities to acquire and manage premier catalogs, creating new opportunities for artists’ and songwriters’ music globally.”
Kevin Kelleher, Sony Music
“Partnering with GIC brings together long-term capital and Sony Music Group’s operational capabilities to acquire and manage premier catalogs, creating new opportunities for artists’ and songwriters’ music globally,” Kevin Kelleher, Sony Music’s Chief Operating officer, is quoted as saying in a statement.
Sony Music Group Chairman and CEO Rob Stringer revealed last June that the company had spent $2.5 billion on over 60 deals in the past year.
Speaking during Sony Group’s 2025 Business Segment Presentation for investors, Stringer said that the music company “completed more than 60 investments in the past year alone” and spent “over $2.5 billion for frontline, catalog, as well as creative and service ventures with outside entrepreneurs across a vast number of territories”.
The company’s acquisitions have included the catalogs of iconic artists like Queen and Pink Floyd.
Meanwhile, Sony isn’t the only major music company to team up with deep-pocketed financial players to establish billion-dollar-plus funds to buy music rights.
In July last year, Warner Music Group and private investment giant Bain Capital unveiled their plans for a $1.2 billion music rights-buying joint venture.
In February 2024, Universal Music Group acquired a minority stake in Chord Music Partners, a platform established by investment giant KKR with Dundee Partners, for USD $240 million.
Subsequent to partnering with UMG, Chord raised over USD $2 billion in investable capital to buy music rights, according to MBW sources close to the company.Music Business Worldwide
