(l to r) Seeker Music CFO Jennifer Scher (formerly CFO of Round Hill and Spirit), CEO Evan Bogart (the son of Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart), COO Rob Guthrie (previously a Songs Music Publishing exec), and head of creative Steven Melrose (formerly a Capitol and Epic higher-up). Photo Credit: Caity Krone
Los Angeles-headquartered Seeker Music, which bills itself as “a global, independent music powerhouse,” has officially acquired the catalogs of songwriters John Ryan and Jon Bellion.
Seeker Music, which “Halo” songwriter Evan Bogart founded in 2020, unveiled its latest song-rights investments via a formal release today. With offices in London and New York City (besides the aforementioned LA headquarters), Seeker says that it’s “already amassed a catalog of over 13,000 highly curated copyrights and master recordings.”
Included within these IP holdings are the “full catalog” of Christopher Cross as well as the rights to Run the Jewels’ first three albums, to name some, on top of the just-acquired works of John Ryan and Jon Bellion. Seeker’s formal release doesn’t appear to identify the newest transactions’ precise ownership details or financials.
In any event, 35-year-old Ryan’s body of work includes songwriting credits on north of 40 One Direction tracks (“Night Changes” and “Infinity” among them) and several Maroon 5 songs (such as “Whiskey” and “Don’t Wanna Know”). Additionally, Ryan has penned releases from Fifth Harmony, Jason Derulo, John Legend, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, and Katy Perry, on top of many others.
Meanwhile, 32-year-old Jon Bellion’s songwriting credits extend to tracks recorded by Justin Bieber, Eminem and Rihanna, Maroon 5, and Camila Cabello, to list a few.
Next, Seeker Music also took the opportunity to announce that it had scooped up “select catalogs from two of its fellow songwriter-helmed music companies,” Family Affair Productions and Grammy-nominated Kara DioGuardi’s Arthouse Entertainment.
The Family Affair agreement is said to cover the selling entity’s share of Ryan’s publishing as well as the publishing of multi-time Shawn Mendes songwriter Teddy Geiger (with whom Hipgnosis inked a catalog deal back in 2019.)
Finally, in terms of the plays’ specifics, the Arthouse pact encompasses its (Arthouse’s) interest in Bellion’s publishing and was finalized separately from the transaction with the creator himself.
Seeker Music, which counts as a “key” investor London-based M&G, likewise touted its “unique and forward-looking emphasis on contemporary catalogs.” And on this front, 2022 brought a comparatively large number of song-rights sales from relatively young music professionals – including Iggy Azalea, Future, Justin Timberlake, and Swedish House Mafia – as opposed to legacy acts.
28-year-old Justin Bieber is reportedly teeing up a catalog sale of his own, and equally as noteworthy as song rights sellers’ ages are the entities that are moving to obtain IP.
Aside from well-known players like BMG, Reservoir, Hipgnosis, Concord, and Primary Wave, investors Pophouse Entertainment (which is led by Björn Ulvaeus), Litmus Music, Influence Media (bankrolled by Warner Music and BlackRock), Matt Pincus’ Music, Mojo Music & Media, and Kilometre Music Group are also making high-profile plays.
