Little more than a year ago, when Armada Music launched its music rights investment vehicle BEAT Music Fund – “the world’s first dance music investment company” – it aimed for $100 million in acquisitions over two years.
Earlier this year, when Armada reorganized itself under a new parent company – Armada Music Group – it revised that number to $500 million over the next five years.
That’s quite an ambitious leap, but so far, the Amsterdam-headquartered dance music company hasn’t had much trouble finding acquisitions.
Within months of launching BEAT Music Fund, it acquired New York-born indie dance label King Street Sounds, and bought the master and catalog rights of Dutch DJ duo Chocolate Puma.
It then went on to pick up the entire back catalog of Sola Records, as well as a “significant portion” of VIVa Music’s catalog.
Earlier this year, it acquired artist shares and songwriter royalties from Jax Jones, as well as shares in select tracks from Amba Shepherd.
In all, the company says it’s acquired some 20,000 assets that have seen 100 million streams since they became part of BEAT Music Fund.
Now, the fund is announcing catalog acquisition deals with three prominent figures in the dance/techno space: Kevin Saunderson, Markus Schulz, and Robbie Rivera.
The deal with techno pioneer Saunderson will see BEAT acquire artist shares from a portion of Sanderson’s Inner City catalog.
Inner City, a collaboration between Saunderson and vocalist Paris Grey, is credited with being a pioneer of the Detroit techno sound, and racked up nine Top 40 hits and two Top 20 albums in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s.
The deal includes several of Inner City’s biggest hits, including Good Life, Big Fun, and Pennies From Heaven.
“Each of these artists have played an integral role in shaping dance music and pioneering sub-genres like techno, house and trance.”
Maykel Piron, Armada Music Group
BEAT’s deal with trance DJ and Coldharbour Recordings owner Markus Schulz includes master and artist royalties for a number of tracks including The New World, Rotuna feat. Jochen Miller, and Loops & Tings feat. Ferry Corsten.
Finally, BEAT is also acquiring master and artist royalties for the entire catalog of Juicy Music, the dance label founded by Puerto Rican-born DJ and producer Robbie Rivera. That includes Rivera’s Agua Pa Beber, Out of Time feat. Jordan Kaahn, and Switch It feat. The Melody Men.
“Each of these artists have played an integral role in shaping dance music and pioneering sub-genres like techno, house and trance,” Armada Music Group CEO Maykel Piron said in a statement.
“We’re truly honored to preserve their incredible legacies and look forward to sharing their beloved work with new audiences.”
Aside from its BEAT Music acquisitions, Armada Music, the label, owns what it calls “the globe’s biggest dance music catalog of over 40,000 tracks,” and represents some of dance music’s biggest artists, including Lilly Palmer, ARTY, Audien, Miss Monique, Ferry Corsten, Jan Blomqvist, Loud Luxury, and Tensnake.
The company says it clocks more than 1 billion streams per month.Music Business Worldwide
