There are 15–20 well-capitalized music catalog companies competing for a finite pool of premium IP. Understanding how they differ — and where the gaps are — is essential context for anyone evaluating music royalties as an asset class.
Here is a current competitive landscape of the major players, their strategies, and their backers.
The Major Music Catalog Companies — 2026 Competitive Map
| Company | Strategy | Key Backers | Estimated AUM | Structure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concord | Acquire + ABS financing, full catalog operator | Flexpoint Ford | $5B+ | Private, ABS-backed |
| Hipgnosis Songs Fund | Pure catalog aggregation, yield-focused | Blackstone | ~$1.4B (acquired by Concord) | Was public (LON: SONG) |
| Shamrock Capital | Entertainment IP, publishing focus | Institutional LPs | $1.6B+ raised | Private PE |
| Chord Music Partners | Large-scale catalog acquisitions | KKR, Dundee Partners | $2B+ investable | Private |
| Influence Media Partners | Catalog + artist partnerships | Goldman Sachs | $360M+ | Private |
| Duetti | Indie artist catalog, publishing | N/A | $200M debt facility | Private |
| Reservoir Media | Publishing + recording rights | Public (RSVR) | ~$800M AUM | Publicly traded |
| Round Hill Music | Song catalog, royalty fund | Public/Delisted | ~$500M | Was public (LON: RHM) |
| Primary Wave | Catalog + brand management | Benefit Street | N/A | Private |
| BARS Fund | Music royalties as Bitcoin treasury collateral | Seeking institutional | $100M target | Private, SPAC pathway |
What Every Competitor Does the Same
Despite their different scales and focus areas, every traditional music catalog company follows the same fundamental playbook:
- Acquire music IP at market multiples (currently 6–25x annual royalties)
- Lever the acquired assets via senior debt or asset-backed securities
- Use the debt proceeds to acquire more music IP
- Repeat until scale justifies a public listing or sale
This model works — the major players have collectively raised tens of billions using it. But it has built-in constraints:
- Appreciation ceiling: Catalog values grow with streaming, but there’s a cap tied to royalty multiples. A catalog worth 15x royalties today is worth 15x royalties tomorrow unless royalties themselves grow meaningfully.
- Competition ceiling: As more capital chases the same deals, acquisition multiples rise and returns compress. The largest funds with the cheapest capital win — everyone else pays up.
- No uncorrelated upside: A music catalog fund’s performance is essentially correlated to streaming growth and credit markets. It doesn’t give investors exposure to anything truly uncorrelated.
Where BARS Fund Is Different
BARS Fund is the only structure in this landscape that uses music royalties as collateral for a Bitcoin treasury rather than more music IP.
This creates three distinct advantages:
- Non-competitive acquisition strategy: We don’t need to win a bidding war against Concord or Shamrock. We need to structure the right deal with artists who want to stay partnered in their catalog’s upside.
- Uncorrelated return stacking: Bitcoin’s appreciation is genuinely uncorrelated to music streaming trends, credit markets, or real estate. Adding it to a royalty-collateralized structure creates returns that no traditional music fund can replicate.
- First-mover positioning: Nobody has publicly launched a music royalty-collateralized Bitcoin treasury. The differentiation in the LP pitch is immediate and defensible.
The Market Opportunity Nobody Else Is Chasing
The crowded middle of the music catalog market — premium catalogs from established acts going to auction — is exactly where traditional funds compete and margins are thinnest.
BARS Fund targets a different segment: mid-market catalogs from artists who have established track records but aren’t yet trophy assets attracting 20x+ multiples. Artists in this segment have consistent royalty income, genuine IP value, and are more likely to consider a partnership structure (pledging assets vs. outright sale) that traditional catalog companies don’t offer.
The result is better entry economics and a deal flow pipeline that doesn’t compete directly with funds backed by KKR and Blackstone.
Further reading: The 13 Biggest Music Business Deals of 2026 — Billboard | 23 Biggest Music Business Deals of 2025 — Music Business Worldwide
Erik Mendelson is the founder and CEO of BARS Fund. Contact: erik@recordgram.com