Hip Hop Stars Miss Out in Music Catalogue Gold Rush

It seems that many hip hop artists are missing out on a big opportunity to make some serious money.

The recent trend of music streaming services buying up music catalogues

The recent trend of music streaming services buying up music catalogues has left many hip hop artists out in the cold. The biggest deals have been for the catalogues of white, classic rock artists like Bob Dylan and the Beatles. While these deals have been great for the artists and their families, they have little to offer hip hop fans.

Hip hop is a relatively new genre, and most of its biggest stars are still alive and making new music. This means that there are fewoldies but goodies for streaming services to offer their customers. The few exceptions are mostly songs that were popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, like NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” or Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle.”

The lack of older hip hop classics on streaming services is a missed opportunity. There is a large and passionate audience for this type of music, but they are not being served by the current crop of streaming options. Hopefully, this will change in the future as more companies realize the potential of this untapped market.

How this has led to a gold rush for music rights

Earlier this year, Jay-Z made headlines when he sold half of his music catalogue to investment group Theicism for $350 million. The sale valued Jay-Z’s catalogue at a staggering $700 million, and was seen as a shrewd move by the rap mogul, who bought the rights to his recordings for just $10 million back in 2013.

The sale of Jay-Z’s catalogue is just the latest example of how much money can be made from the sale of music rights. In recent years, there has been a growing trend for investors to buy up the rights to music catalogues, with many artists seeing their recordings increase in value as a result.

This trend has been driven by a number of factors, including the increasing popularity of streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, which have led to a renaissance in the music industry. In addition, many investors see music rights as a safer investment than other types of assets, such as property or stocks and shares.

However, not all artists are benefitting from this trend. While some are seeing their catalogues increase in value, many others are missing out on the gold rush as they struggle to retain control of their recordings.

In particular, hip hop stars are missing out on huge sums of money as their recordings are frequently sold without their knowledge or consent. This is often because hip hop artists sign contracts that give record labels control of their recordings for many years after they are released. As a result, when these artists try to sell their catalogues later in their career, they often find that they do not have the rights to do so.

This situation is unfair and highlights the need for greater protection for artists’ rights. Record labels should not be able to control an artist’s recordings indefinitely and should be required to offer fair terms when selling an artist’s catalogue on behalf of them. Only then will all artists be able to benefit from the growing market for music rights.

How hip hop stars are missing out on this trend

As the popularity of buying and selling music catalogues continues to grow, hip hop stars are being left behind.

Music catalogues are big business. In 2019, Neil Young’s catalogue sold for $150 million, while Stevie Nicks’ catalogue went for $100 million. These are just two recent examples of the huge sums that can be generated from the sale of music rights.

While many classic rock and pop artists have been cashing in on this trend, hip hop stars have so far been largely missing out. Part of the reason for this is that hip hop is a relatively young genre, and many of its biggest stars are still active and touring.

However, there are some hip hop artists who have started to sell their catalogues in recent years. Dr. Dre sold his catalogue to Apple for $3 billion in 2014, while Jay-Z sold his catalogue to Universal Music Group for an estimated $250 million last year.

With the value of music catalogues continuing to rise, it’s likely that more and more hip hop stars will start to cash in on this lucrative market.

The reasons for this

In recent years, we have seen a huge resurgence in the popularity of older music, with catalogue releases by artists such as the Beatles, Kiss and David Bowie selling in huge numbers. However, this trend seems to have bypassed hip hop completely, with very few older releases by rappers being reissued or made available digitally. There are a number of reasons for this.

First of all, hip hop is a relatively young genre, and so there are fewer older releases to choose from. Secondly, unlike other genres where the music is seen as timeless and classic, hip hop is often seen as being very much of its time, and so its appeal is more limited. Thirdly, many older hip hop releases are out of print and difficult to find, meaning that there is little interest from either record labels or fans in reissuing them.

Fourthly, there is also the issue of sampling. Hip hop producers often use samples from older tracks in their productions, and if these tracks are not available or cannot be cleared for use, then it makes it much harder to reissue an old hip hop track. Finally, there is the simple fact that younger fans are generally more interested in new music than they are in older releases.

All of these factors combine to make it very unlikely that we will see any kind of renaissance for old school hip hop anytime soon.

The implications for the future of the music industry

As the music industry slowly emerges from the digital doldrums of the past decade, a new gold rush is underway. Music companies are rushing to buy up the rights to musicians’ back catalogues in a bid to cash in on a new generation of streaming fans.

The recent $300 million sale of Prince’s catalogue to the Universal Music Group is just the latest and most high-profile example of this new trend. UMG has also spent big to acquire the rights to artists like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Taylor Swift in recent years.

While these deals may be good news for the artists involved, they could have troubling implications for the future of the music industry. If the major labels continue to scoop up these valuable assets, it could make it even harder for new artists to break through in an already consolidating business.

“The danger is that we end up with an industry that’s increasingly controlled by a small number of giant companies,” said Danae Ringelmann, co-founder and chief development officer at IndieGoGo, a crowdfunding platform for creative projects.

Ringelmann argues that the trend towards consolidation in the music industry has already made it harder for new artists to get their start. “The barriers to entry are already pretty high,” she said. “If you look at who owns most of these catalogues, it’s usually just a handful of companies.”

Indeed, as Variety notes, UMG now controls around 80% of all recorded music — a level of market dominance that would likely invite antitrust scrutiny in any other industry.

The growing concentration of power in the hands of a few major labels could have far-reaching consequences for the future of popular music. If the majors continue to snap up valuable catalogue assets, it could create an ever-widening gap between those who control the lion’s share of the industry’s wealth and those struggling to get their foot in the door.