Singapore’s Central Business District. Photo Credit: Bijay Chaurasia
Let the catalog acquisition spree continue: Sony Music is set to pursue IP deals “across a range of genres” under a newly announced partnership with GIC.
Sony Music and Singapore’s state-owned investment company just recently unveiled their song-rights collaboration, which also counts Sony Bank as a backer. Though the involved entities opted against specifying the capital behind the project, Bloomberg pointed to an anticipated investment of $2 billion to $3 billion.
Unsurprisingly, the tranche will bankroll plays for “high‑quality, marquee music catalog assets across a range of genres,” according to Sony Music and GIC, which didn’t shed light on their initial purchase plans.
“Partnering with GIC brings together long term capital and Sony Music Group’s operational capabilities to acquire and manage premier catalogs, creating new opportunities for artists’ and songwriters’ music globally,” added Sony Music COO Kevin Kelleher.
Meanwhile, GIC managing director Girish Karira, whose fund’s been spearheading music investments “for nearly a decade,” touted the industry as “a resilient sector with attractive long-term growth prospects.”
“The music ecosystem is a resilient sector with attractive long-term growth prospects and we are excited about the next stage of streaming monetization through premiumization and subscriber growth in emerging markets,” Karira said in part.
“This investment alongside Sony Music Group, a leading global player with deep industry expertise and strong operational capabilities, builds on GIC’s longstanding relationship with Sony Group, which we look forward to further strengthening,” proceeded the GIC higher-up of 15 years.
GIC certainly isn’t alone in throwing money at the asset class, where billions of dollars are continuing to fly around.
In terms of public catalog-acquisition funding announcements (including securitizations) made during 2025 and to this point in 2026, key players have pulled down over $12 billion, per DMN Pro’s Music Industry Funding Tracker.
(Of course, not all funding is publicly announced; the sum isn’t comprehensive. Additionally, multiple pre-2025 catalog funds, even considering the possibility that they’ve been closing plays on the q.t., are probably far from fully deployed. And despite mainly reaching music IP, the capital is occasionally landing outside the core industry; HarbourView last year backed Lion Forge and Animaj, to name one example.)
For the majors, besides the Sony Music-GIC union, the total reflects Warner Music’s $1.2 billion Bain Capital partnership and the reportedly $2 billion pulled down by Chord Music Partners. Universal Music possesses a sizable stake in the latter, and the Warner Music-Bain JV is expected to reveal its initial acquisition(s) soon.
