📑 CMU Digest: Hipgnosis bo ard urges caution about valu ation, management changes at Utopia and Linkfire + more

After a short break over Christmas and New Year, the CMU Digest is back. We've been diligently practising writing 2024 instead of 2023, and so far it's going pretty well.

Every Saturday we send a summary of five key music business stories from the past week - though, because of the break, this edition stretches a little longer.

This week: Hipgnosis Songs Fund cuts the valuation of its catalogues, changes at the top for Utopia Music and Linkfire, BPI's end of year music consumption stats, and Universal renews deal with Tencent.

CMU's virtual masterclass Music + AI In 2024 takes place on Tuesday 20 Feb. Attendees can access the session live on Zoom and then on-demand via the CMU learning platform. Click here for information on all of the upcoming CMU online masterclasses and to book your place.

The Hipgnosis Songs Fund cut the valuation of its catalogues by 9.2% and warned investors to be cautious of that valuation.

In its slightly delayed financial results, the publicly-listed fund said that - despite positive market trends and income growth - it was aware of "multiple data points and transactions within the market which are at material discounts to the implied fair value of the company’s assets".

The statement also confirmed ongoing tensions between the fund and its advisors at Hipgnosis Song Management. It said that HSM initially declined to offer guidance on the valuation of the fund's assets and then "provided an opinion which was heavily caveated". Which is why the HSF board "has concerns as to whether the fair value is reasonable".

Popular smart link platform Linkfire announced a rejig of its senior management team and that it will delist from the Stockholm-based Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market.

Co-Founder and CEO Lars Ettrup is moving to an advisory role and CFO Tobias Demuth will stand down in February. Ettrup said the changes were a “no-drama decision”, adding: “All stories have different chapters, and as Linkfire will soon be a profitable and private company again, my work in the CEO capacity is done”.

It seems that the company's key investors and backers - which include Bandlab founder Meng Ru Kuok - have decided that Linkfire will be better positioned for growth as a private rather than publicity-listed company.

There were changes at the top of Utopia Music giving investors greater oversight following an Extraordinary General Meeting just before Christmas.

Co-founder Mattias Hjelmstedt stood down as Chair but stays on the board, while John Mitchell, CEO of Mitchell Asset Management, became interim Chair. According to sources, existing investors have committed to pump a further €15 million into the beleaguered Swiss music tech company in return for getting more control of the business.

It's thought a similar amount of money is close to being secured from new investors. After a year of significant downsizing, including selling off past acquisitions and liquidating UK and Finnish R&D divisions, it remains to be seen if the changes can help turn round Utopia’s fortunes in 2024.

End of year stats from record label trade group BPI confirmed that streaming accounted for 87.7% of UK music consumption in 2023, while vinyl sales were up and cassette sales slumped.

179.6 billion streams were delivered to UK consumers across 2023, up 12.8% on 2022 and nearly double the total number of annual streams recorded five years ago. On the physical side, the vinyl revival continued with 6.1 million units being shifted, up 11.8% on 2022.

However, the albeit much smaller cassette revival seems to have faltered. Cassette sales were down by 30%, from 195,000 units to 136,000 units. And 6% of those were bought by Olivia Rodrigo fans, with nearly 8500 copies of her album 'Guts' being sold on tape during its first week of release.

Universal Music renewed its licensing deal with Tencent Music Entertainment.

The deal covers all four services run by Tencent in China - QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and WeSing - and, a statement stressed, includes making Universal tracks available in Dolby Atmos and high-definition formats.

Universal has had a long-term licensing relationship with TME in China, while the wider Tencent group also own shares in UMG. The major's Adam Granite said of the new deal: "With our renewed focus on signing and supporting the best talent from across Greater China, we look forward to working together with TME to help create compelling new experiences for fans across all TME platforms".

A guide to (almost) everything that happened in AI and the music industry in 2023.

It's fair to say that AI dominated the conversation - and not just in the music business - in 2023. Suddenly every company has an AI strategy, and everyone - perhaps assisted by ChatGPT - is an AI expert. We've put together a (very) deep dive to look at what actually happened in 2023, why it matters - and what it means for 2024. Buckle up, or bookmark for later - it's long!