Round Hill Music Royalty Partners (Round Hill), a private equity firm solely dedicated to investing in music copyrights and one of the world’s largest independent owner of music copyrights, has closed its second fund, Round Hill Music Royalty Fund II with total equity commitments of USD263 million.
Fund II will continue Round Hill’s successful strategy of establishing a diversified portfolio of blue chip royalty producing music copyrights by acquiring individual catalogs from songwriters, artists and smaller independent music publishers. An additional unique component of the strategy is Round Hill uses its in-house administration team to increase the royalty income. Fund II has already deployed more than USD100 million across several investments including the recently-closed acquisition of Carlin Music and the catalog of country songwriter Dallas Davidson.
Joshua Gruss, Chief Executive Officer of Round Hill, says: “I am pleased with the strong level of support we have received from both new and existing investors in Round Hill Music Royalty Fund II. Our business has been successful due to the tireless work of our highly experienced management team, deep institutional approach, high level of GP commitment and robust internal platform to collect, license and administer music royalties.”
Neil Gillis, President, adds: “Since inception, Round Hill has made over 100 investments and acquired approximately USD465 million of music copyright assets, demonstrating our strong track record of executing deals and adding value, which is appealing to both investors and the music marketplace. Our hands-on approach, passion for music, value-add capabilities like with Zync Powered by Round Hill, Round Hill Nashville and our other internal divisions serve to make Round Hill the music rights company of choice for songwriters and other sellers of copyrights.”
Richard Rowe, Vice Chairman, adds: “With Fund I we created what is today the highest quality independently owned collection of music rights in the world. We look forward to repeating that success with Fund II.”
Round Hill’s first fund, which launched in 2012 and raised over USD200 million in equity commitments, has spent over USD250 million on music rights, including publishing, master recordings and neighbouring rights. Round Hill Fund I has generated over USD55 million in royalty income since inception. The portfolio of Fund I includes songs recorded by The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Bruno Mars, Tim McGraw, Aerosmith, N Sync, Pat Benatar, The Four Tops, James Taylor, Marvin Gaye, The Offspring, Bush, Warrant, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood and American Authors, among many others.