Believe has acquired Sentric as its first move into building a digital-first music publishing business.
The French company acquired the independent UK publishing platform from Utopia in a deal that values Sentric at €47 million.
Utopia only acquired Sentric a year ago but it has since undergone a major restructuring, amid the ongoing cutbacks in the technology sector.
“Believe’s external growth strategy is focused on capturing investment and acquisition opportunities where the group can leverage its global presence, digital expertise and technology to offer unique and innovative solutions to artists and music rights-holders on a large scale,” said a statement.
“The acceleration of the digitalisation of the publishing market presents Believe with an attractive opportunity to build a service for songwriters and publishers, in a way that is both innovative and complementary with its core recorded music offering.”
Denis Ladegaillerie, founder & CEO, Believe, said: “The acquisition of Sentric is the first step for Believe in the roll-out of a global and comprehensive publishing offer. The growth and digital transformation of the songwriters’ market is opening up many opportunities. We are excited to be able to immediately expand the services we provide to our existing TuneCore clients with Sentric’s best-in-class royalty collection service, while starting to work on future innovative products and services for all of Believe’s songwriters and publishers.”
Believe noted that digital collections from streaming services are the fastest growing source of publishing income and are expected to represent the majority of publishing revenue in the future.
“From a geographic standpoint, there is a true alignment between the largest publishing markets (Europe, followed by the United States and then fast-developing Asian markets) and where Believe is best positioned and able to bring high-value services to its clients,” said the statement.
The acquisition of Sentric is the first step for Believe in the roll-out of a global and comprehensive publishing offer
Denis Ladegaillerie
The acquisition of Sentric acts as a first step for Believe in rolling out a global publishing business. Sentric’s positioning and capabilities represent a “unique opportunity to build a leading platform for collection as a key element of that future offering”, according to the company.
Sentric is a global independent music publishing platform based in Liverpool, with offices in Europe and the United States. Partnering with over 70 collecting societies, the platform already operates in more than 200 territories, representing more than four million songs and over 400,000 songwriters either directly or via industry partners.
Sentric is nominated at the Music Week Awards in the Independent Publisher category.
Sentric’s proprietary platform is able to manage publishing for self-releasing artists at scale, while also offering global publishing deals to rights-holders at each stage of their development. Sentric’s global team has expertise across royalties, activity and usage tracking, rights management and sync, as well as territory-specific knowledge.
“Sentric’s publishing expertise, industry leading technology and unique platform for collection combined with Believe’s digital music expertise and global presence will develop a comprehensive solution for songwriters and publishers at all levels,” added the statement.
Sentric recently renewed its agreement with TuneCore, expanding services to offer songwriters more flexibility and a new publishing interface. Around 23% of TuneCore’s subscribers are already benefiting from Sentric’s platform. TuneCore publishing administration has paid over $100 million to songwriters who utilise the service.
Sentric’s integration will further strengthen publishing for TuneCore’s self-releasing artists and expand it to new geographies. Sentric will then offer publishing services to all clients within the Believe Group. The acquisition will also provide new ways to manage and optimise catalogues and support songwriters and publishers, in addition to artists and labels.
The new business line will be led by the existing Sentric leadership team.
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