Concord has acquired a portion of the music publishing catalog of Tom Higgenson, songwriter and frontman of the Plain White T’s.
The agreement includes the global pop hit with more than a billion streams Hey There Delilah.
According to Concord Chief Business Development Officer Steve Salm the acquisition “now gives Concord ownership in both the recording and underlying composition of this evergreen song”.
Concord says that Hey There Delilah was written by Higgenson after meeting Delilah DiCrescenzo, a nationally ranked American steeplechase and cross-country runner, through a mutual friend around 2002.
Released as a single on their RIAA Gold-certified album, Every Second Counts in 2007, Hey There Delilah went on to earn Plain White T’s two Grammy nominations and spent 35 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and peaked at No.1 for two weeks in a row.
The song rose to No.1 in eight countries in 2007-2008.
Other notable tracks included in the deal are A Lonely September, Take Me Away, and Radios in Heaven.
Higgenson and Plain White T’s came to Concord’s Fearless Records when their self-produced album Stop attracted the attention of the label.
The band returned to Fearless for their 2018 album Parallel Universe and have released two singles this year, Spaghetti Tattoo and Happy.
Tom Higgenson was represented by his longtime attorney Scott Bradford of Selverne Bradford, PLLC.
“I’m very grateful for the relationship I have built with the Concord and Fearless teams, and I’m excited to move forward into the future with them.”
Tom Higgenson
On the song catalog acquisition and ongoing partnership with Fearless Records, Higgenson said: “I’m very grateful for the relationship I have built with the Concord and Fearless teams, and I’m excited to move forward into the future with them.”
Fearless Records President Andy Serrao added: “Working directly with Tom on this deal has been a great experience and moreover, Concord and Fearless are pleased that Plain White T’s has once again chosen Fearless to release their upcoming album.”
“Hey There Delilah is literally sung, hummed, or lip-synced in every corner of the world.”
Steve Salm, Concord
Concord Chief Business Development Officer Steve Salm said: “Hey There Delilah is literally sung, hummed, or lip-synced in every corner of the world.
“We are excited to have made this acquisition which now gives Concord ownership in both the recording and underlying composition of this evergreen song.”
Elsewhere at Concord, Tom Becci was recently hired as Chief Executive of Concord Label Group.
Meanwhile, recent major M&A moves at Concord include the eight-figure acquisition of Australia’s Native Tongue (and related expansion in Australasia), last year, plus the ~$300m acquisition of music rights from Phil Collins and members of Genesis. (The latter was a rare thing over the past 12 months: a nine-figure artist catalog acquisition.)
In June, Concord bulked up its frontline recorded music credentials with the announcement of a JV label, Pulse Records, with the widely respected Pulse Music Group team. (Concord become a majority owner in Pulse Music Publishing via a $100m+ deal in 2020).
Concord has over 800,000 songs in its publishing portfolio – including the 380,000 it acquired from Imagem in 2017 via a $500m+ deal –
The company has also in the past six years bolstered its recordings business (Concord Label Group) via acquisitions of storied imprints like Fania (2018), Independiente (2018), and Savoy (2017), in addition to acquiring the hip-hop-heavy frontline catalog of L.A Reid’s HitCo in 2022.
As things stand, Concord’s masters business includes ownership of more than 275,000 recordings, including tracks from 300 Grammy Award winners – plus the world’s No.1 kids’ music brand, KIDZ BOP (worldwide to date: 8 billion streams, 22.5 million album sales).
MBW recently noted, in an interview with Concord CEO Bob Valentine, that the company secured a bond offering for a large portion of its music catalog in December, via Apollo Global Management.
And as a result, Concord successfully priced $1.65 billion of senior notes. Around $1.25 billion of that figure was used to refinance Concord’s debt, but $400 million joined its cash pile.
Combined with access to another $150 million secured via a revolver credit vehicle, Concord has at least $550 million in M&A firepower ready to go.Music Business Worldwide
