Round Hill Music has acquired Austin, Texas-based Rident Royalties, a leading neighbouring rights agency for film/tv composers and production music.
The investment further expands Round Hill’s neighbouring rights platform, Sound Hill, bringing additional expertise, industry networks, new technology, territorial reach and around 1,000 new clients.
The acquisition follows the agreed sale of Round Hill Music Royalty Fund to Concord. Separate from that deal, Round Hill Music and its 70-strong team in Nashville, New York, Los Angeles and London continue to manage music rights with a value of around $900 million.
With the acquisition, Sound Hill’s client portfolio will expand to include over 1,200 performers and 120 record labels. Sound Hill will also assume Rident’s position in the formerly untapped production music and film/tv score neighbouring rights markets.
Rident was established in 2016 by Chris Kennedy, a former employee of Sound Exchange. It has direct relationships with 64 collective management organisations in over 45 territories. It has grown from having fewer than 100 to over 1,000 clients in the span of a few years by identifying performers and labels across the globe with neighbouring rights income in territories either not covered by their national CMO, or on usage types not covered by their national CMO.
Sound Hill, whose artist clients include Alice Cooper, Alice In Chains, David Coverdale, Goo Goo Dolls and the estate of Ronnie Van Zant among others, was established by Round Hill in 2021 and is led by former PPL client manager Róisín Brophy (pictured). Chris Kennedy and Brophy will lead the platform as co-heads of Sound Hill.
Josh Gruss, CEO at Round Hill Music, said: “Over the last three years, under the leadership of Róisín Brophy, Round Hill Music has established a well-regarded and high-performing neighbouring rights platform in Sound Hill, serving performers and rights-holders across the globe. The combination of Rident and Sound Hill’s advanced repertoire, claims technology and deep expertise creates an unequalled service provider in this area of the market, which has strong growth forecasts underpinned by the music industry’s overall positive outlook. With this new addition to its stable, Round Hill will continue to apply its expertise to managing and maximising the value of our music catalogues.”
Chris Kennedy, owner/president of Rident Royalties, said: “Sound Hill and Rident share the goal of providing an unparalleled level of representation and personal service to our clients. Together, our experience, global neighbouring rights affiliations and client portfolios will provide mainstream clarity on one of the least understood revenue streams in the music industry, and ultimately ensure that rights-holders are paid quickly and accurately.”
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