Queen's Billion Dollar Music Catalog, Kits AI Voice Models, and TikTok Songs with Pitchy

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Welcome to my newsletter What ladidai Has to Say, where I discuss tunes, tech, and trends that interest me. I’m ladi and I’m happy to have you! Today’s seventh edition is about the impending record-smashing Queen catalog acquisition, Kits introducing AI voice licensing, and Pitchy making TikTok-friendly versions of songs.

Let’s get into it.

Does Queen Have a $1 Billion Catalog?

Last weekend, Tim Ingham, Founder of Music Business Worldwide (MBW), broke the news that they just might.

The sale, led by Universal Music Group, would mark the largest single-artist music catalog sale in history, surpassing Sony Music Group's acquisition of Bruce Springsteen's catalog in 2021, which was valued at over $500 million at the time of purchase.

Queen’s legacy is one for the books. Their catalog includes some of the most iconic songs ever, such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Will Rock You,” and “We Are the Champions.” The band’s music has been streamed billions of times across streaming services, and it continues to generate significant revenue from sales of physical albums, digital downloads, and licensing deals. You may also recall the 2018 biographical musical drama film Bohemian Rhapsody, which was a huge box office success, grossing over $900 million worldwide. It was the highest-grossing biopic of all time until it was surpassed by Rocketman in 2019. The film was also nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won four. Bohemian Rhapsody was a critical and commercial success, and it helped to revive interest in Queen and their music.

Queen’s catalog is currently owned by Disney Music Group, which has stated they have no plans to sell it. But as we all know, practically anything will be sold if the price is right.

The sale of the Queen catalog is being driven by the growing demand for music rights from major music companies. In recent years, there has been a wave of acquisitions of music catalogs, as we’ve seen with artists even as young as Justin Bieber, led by companies like Hipgnosis.

According to MBW, Queen’s catalog may ultimately be sold for closer to $1.1 billion, if not more. The sale would be major for Freddie Mercury’s estate, but also Queen’s surviving members, John Deacon, Brian May, and Roger Taylor.

Who Else Will Sell?

One of the only other full catalog sales bound to surpass Queen’s is the catalog of Michael Jackson. His estate is in talks with Sony according to Variety, but reportedly, they’re only looking to sell half for an estimated maximum amount of $900 million. Billboard reports that Jackson’s estate is worth upwards of $2 billion.

Other possible acquisitions?

Prince

Despite his 18-year-long highly publicized battle with Warner Bros. Records, Prince signed a licensing deal with them in 2018, where he also regained his masters. In 2021, Primary Wave Music acquired a controlling stake (42%) in the Prince Estate's intellectual property, which includes Prince's name and likeness, royalties from his masters, and publishing rights, as well as Paisley Park. This deal gave Primary Wave the right to manage and exploit Prince's music for the next 30 years. However, the deal did not include Prince's entire music catalog. Some of his catalog is owned by Sony, via a deal also inked in 2021.

Then there’s Prince’s vault. It was initially denied in 2016 that the vault was for sale, only to be sold to Universal Music Group in 2017 for $31 million. Then, the deal was voided shortly after because of conflicts with Warner Music Group. It is unlikely that Primary Wave or Sony will sell any of their current stakes for quite some time, but it is likely that the Prince Estate may sell a portion if not all of the vault to Warner Bros. Records due to the fact that Warner Bros. will maintain the rights anyway for the next several years.

Dolly Parton

Just last year, Dolly seemed relatively open to the idea of selling her catalog.

Prior to that, in 2020, she revealed that she would only want to sell her catalog if she was able to maintain a certain level of control, and her manager, Danny Nozzell, stated that when it happens, it would be sold for an “iconic price.” It’s only right given that Dolly Parton has written over 3,000 songs, including Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and smash hit “Jolene.” Dolly has been in the music industry for over 50 years, releasing her first album in 1967 and has since released a Guinness World Record-breaking 65 studio albums.

2019, The Songwriters Hall of Famer inked a new publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. However, she owns the masters of her entire music catalog, estimated to be worth around $150 million. Earlier this year, Dolly stated she wanted superstar Miley Cyrus to play her in a movie and serious conversation surrounding a Dolly Parton biopic came about just the year prior, so it’s safe to say we’ll see one before 2030. And if the Queen biopic is anything to go by, when hers releases, it could be a box office hit, further revitalizing her catalog.

The Rolling Stones

Though they have stated they’re not quite ready to let go, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Rolling Stones sold their catalog in the next 5 years.

Just last year, guitarist and vocalist Keith Richards discussed where he and bandmate Mick Jagger stood on the matter:

Richards and Jagger are both 79 years old. The Rolling Stones catalog is inarguably one of the most prestigious catalogs in music history and the band has a combined net worth of $1.45 billion. Their latest tour, Sixty, which is also their most successful tour to date, grossed $120 million across 14 dates. So I’d imagine a full catalog sale would go for no less than that.

What are your thoughts on music master and publishing catalog sales? Who do you suspect will sell too? Share your thoughts here.

Kits is Democratizing AI Music for Artists

GrimesAI-1 walked so Kits AI could run.

I’ve been mentioning for some time now that I’ve been flabbergasted at the lack of a clear frontrunner when it comes to AI music modeling and licensing platforms. Kits has now entered the chat.

Kits is a subsidiary of onchain music collaboration company Arpeggi Labs. I first learned of Arpeggi a few years ago during the web3 music boom. Earlier this year, Arpeggi launched Kits, initially focusing on sound packs containing vocal and instrumental loops and one-shots. The artist I manage, TK, was one of the first artists to partner with them during their launch.

This week, Kits announced their latest launch with TK for a different purpose: AI voice modeling.

So how do you try this out? On their site (both desktop and mobile) you can either upload an a capella of your voice or record right in the app. From there, you can convert and pitch shift and out comes the transformed vocal.

Kits is cleverly leveraging blockchain technology for all of their licensing solutions, and I wouldn’t be surprised if other companies followed suit.

I would encourage all artists to try this out for themselves. AI voice licensing is bound to be a major additional revenue stream. And in music, you can never have enough of those. So enter this competition to test the waters and then tap in below to see how you can potentially partner with Kits too.

How do you feel about the developments in AI music? Have you experimented yet? Share your thoughts here.

Mayk.it easy to Pitch Songs

It seems that coupled with every other major label release are sped-up and slowed-down version of singles.

Now the sped-up version of “Karma (Remix)” by Taylor Swift ft. Ice Spice isn’t even available yet on DSPs, but that hasn’t stopped fans from creating their own versions on TikTok.

TikTok has had a significant impact on overall Billboard sales. In 2021, over 175 songs that went viral on TikTok charted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2022, 13 out of the 14 no. 1 hits on Billboard were driven by viral TikTok challenges. Unless TikTok bans actually pass on the federal or state levels, it will continue to play a major role in music discovery and sales in the years to come.

This is partially why even the most commercially and critically successful artists like SZA release sped-up and slowed-down versions of their hits, which all count towards Billboard.

R&B sensation Summer Walker went as far as creating a whole social media profile just for said releases (which has since been converted for the promotion of her latest EP CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE).

Nick Jarjour, Founder of JarjourCo., the home of multi-Platinum Grammy award winner Starrah, revealed this week on his LinkedIn profile that he had pitched an idea (no pun intended) to some friends in music tech to create an app that would create these kinds of song variations with ease.

I’ve been familiar with the music social app Mayk.it for some time now due to a partnership several months ago with TK.

Mayk Inc. is a relatively new startup, but it has already gained some attention from the music industry due to the success of Mayk.it. It has been featured in publications such as Billboard and Rolling Stone, and it has been used by artists such as Avril Lavigne and YUNGBLUD. Co-founders Stefán Heinrich Henriquez and Akiva Bamberger, who are alumni of TikTok, Snap, and Cameo, closed a $4 million seed round in 2021.

Mayk Inc., the home company of Mayk.it and Pitchy, is on a mission to make music creation more accessible for artists everywhere. They believe that we all have the potential to be music creators and they’re committed to providing the tools and resources to further democratize the music landscape.

So how does Pitchy work? Pretty simply.

You import the media from Files, Photos, or as a link. Play around with the speed, pitch, and EQ. Then export it as a WAV. And voila—this is your result:

Try out Mayk.it here and download Pitchy here (sorry Android users—it’s available for iPhone only right now). Share what you create in the comments!

ladidai is a web2.5 music tech professional with a passion for music, emerging technology, pop culture, social media, and the creator economy. Learn more here. If you enjoyed, please share! Send all inquiries to [email protected]. And feel free to join in on the conversation by commenting here.