Photo Credit: 300 Entertainment
300 Entertainment – the record label behind Megan Thee Stallion, Fetty Wap, Young Thug, and a number of other acts – is reportedly looking to sell for north of $400 million.
The Lyor Cohen-founded label’s possible sale came to light in a recent report from Bloomberg, but at the time of this piece’s writing, neither the YouTube global head of music Cohen nor other 300 Entertainment higher-ups had commented publicly on the matter. However, “two people familiar with the process” have indicated that a transaction involving the eight-year-old label is on the table, per Bloomberg once again.
One of these individuals likewise relayed that “the company is expected to sell for at least $400 million,” the report proceeds, and additional information – that is, the potential agreement’s precise value, timetable, and purchaser – hasn’t yet come to light. (300 Entertainment has a distribution deal with Atlantic Records, though, and Cohen previously served as WMG’s CEO and president of recorded music.)
Rumors of New York City-based 300 Entertainment’s sale arrive amid continued double-digit growth within the music industry. Warner Music, Universal Music, and Sony Music alike have recorded massive year-over-year revenue gains in 2021, which has also brought a series of high-profile acquisitions.
Sony Music in early February inked a deal to purchase Kobalt’s AWAL for $430 million, for instance – though the buyout has since been the target of regulatory scrutiny in the UK. Additionally, SME has obtained Brazil’s Som Livre for $250 million and secured a majority stake in Alamo Records (the professional home of Rod Wave and Lil Durk), to name just some of the Big Three label’s 2021 plays.
Warner Music – shares of which reached another record high today, cracking $50 apiece – acquired Moscow-based Zhara Music in March (promptly renaming the division Atlantic Records Russia), after confirming that it had obtained (a reportedly $200 million) stake in Arab heavyweight Rotana Music. And the publicly traded Universal Music, for its part, has to this point in 2021 invested substantially in expansion plans throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
More broadly, billions have poured into the music-IP space since late 2020 – including UMPG’s acquisition of Bob Dylan’s catalog, Sony Music Publishing’s purchase of Paul Simon’s catalog, and Warner Music’s reportedly $100 million investment in the recorded catalog of French DJ David Guetta.
October of 2021 alone has delivered a $1.1 billion sale of Kobalt Capital’s over 62,000-track KMR Music Royalties II portfolio, the launch of Lyric Capital’s $500 million catalog fund, a $1 billion song-rights investment from Blackstone, and multimillion-dollar IP deals between Primary Wave and the estates of Bing Crosby, Gerry Goffin, and Luther Vandross.