{"id":9150,"date":"2026-06-25T18:29:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=9150"},"modified":"2026-06-25T18:29:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:29:37","slug":"private-equity-gets-cut-of-two-of-taylor-swifts-biggest-pop-hits-through-max-martin-catalog-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=9150","title":{"rendered":"Private equity gets cut of two of Taylor Swift\u2019s biggest pop hits through Max Martin catalog sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Taylor Swift upended the economics of the music industry by buying back her first six albums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Now, her most famous co-writers have sold the publishing rights to at least two of her chart-topping singles to a private equity company. It\u2019s a deal that puts a price tag on the hidden half of Swift\u2019s catalog \u2014 not the recordings fans and Swift fought over, but the songwriting royalties investors believe will keep paying for decades.<\/p>\n

HarbourView Equity Partners bought the publisher\u2019s share of Swift\u2019s songs \u201cStyle\u201d and \u201cReady for It\u201d co-written by Max Martin and Shellback, two of the most recognizable songwriter-producers of the 2000s, and the deal includes songs by Ariana Grande and the Weeknd, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a transaction Variety<\/em> exclusively reported on Wednesday to be in the low nine-figure range, according to inside sources, and HarbourView declined to confirm that number and provide details.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The acquisition doesn\u2019t detract at all from Swift\u2019s existing ownership, but gives HarbourView the slice of copyright that Max Martin and Shellback have as co-writers on \u201cStyle\u201d, \u201cReady for It\u201d and the other pop songs included in the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

HarbourView\u2019s motive to want in on this reflects the three-tiered moneymaking potential of publishing rights: public performances, streaming services and one-time commercial licensing.<\/p>\n

This means every time a pop hit like \u201cStyle\u201d and \u201cReady for It\u201d plays in a restaurant or a bar, or is listened to on Spotify, or soundtracks a movie or a commercial, the publisher profits from royalties. This applies to all versions of the song, since the publisher owns the underlying composition and lyrics, so in this case the original \u201cStyle\u201d and \u201cStyle (Taylor\u2019s Version)\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry itself is doing well, and it\u2019s very easily monetized and calibrated,\u201d Barry Massarsky, who leads advisory firm Citrin Cooperman\u2019s music and entertainment valuation services, told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cThose are the major reasons why there\u2019s such an investment interest in publishing catalogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massarsky wasn\u2019t involved with the HarbourView deal, but he pointed out that more \u201cmature\u201d catalogs like Max Martin and Shellback\u2019s \u2013 who have co-written hit songs for decades \u2013 also \u201ctrade at a higher multiple\u201d compared to newer ones because there\u2019s more certainty about their returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, things that go up on the charts only have one place to go, and that\u2019s down, so the investor wants to know what happens to the catalog when it reaches what we call a steady state, where the income is reliably set up,\u201d Massarsky said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Acquiring Max Martin and Shellback\u2019s copyright shares of Swift\u2019s songs also benefits HarbourView by cutting down on the number of co-writers the company would have to consult to license \u201cStyle\u201d and \u201cReady for It\u201d for films, TV shows and commercials.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaylor doesn\u2019t tend to have 10 different songwriters on a song, but then there\u2019s artists who do, and so in that case, you would have to secure permission from all of them,\u201d Tatiana Cirisano, vice president of music strategy at insights firm MIDiA, told Fortune<\/em>. <\/p>\n

HarbourView did not respond to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Private #equity #cut #Taylor #Swifts #biggest #pop #hits #Max #Martin #catalog #sale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taylor Swift upended the economics of the music industry by buying back her first six albums.\u00a0 Now, her most famous co-writers have sold the publishing rights to at least two… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54,11203,1541,359,966,7359,11202,4264,300,960,1402,11201,7271,7269],"class_list":["post-9150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-biggest","tag-catalog","tag-cut","tag-equity","tag-hits","tag-martin","tag-max","tag-pop","tag-private","tag-private-equity","tag-sale","tag-swifts","tag-taylor","tag-taylor-swift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}