Music start-up acquires 49% stake in Rolling Stone

Rolling StoneUS’s parent company Wenner Media has sold a 49% stake to a Singapore-based music start-up and is set to launch a new international subsidiary.

The purchase was made by BandLab Technologies, a collective which covers musical instruments and accessories, web/mobile/social applications and commerce.

While the purchase does give BandLab part ownership of Rolling Stone’s print and digital assets, it does not include ownership of the title’s publisher, Wenner Media LLC. Wenner Media also owns Us Weekly and Men’s Journal.

BandLab’s collective includes an online music social network, which allows users to create, collaborate and share their music. While its exact investment amount was not disclosed, it will help Rolling Stone enter the realms of live events, marketing including merchandising services and hospitality. BandLab will have no involvement in the editorial side of Rolling Stone’s magazine or digital assets but it will oversee the new subsidiary, which will be based in Singapore.

A BandLab spokesman told TMN the subsidiary is titled Rolling Stone International and that specific details regarding its initiatives and projects will be announced at the appropriate time.

“It’s a big moment,’’ Rolling Stone head of digital Gus Wenner told Bloomberg News. “There is a great opportunity to take that brand and apply it into new and different areas and markets.”

BandLab is owned by 28-year-old Kuok Meng Ru, the third son of Singapore-based agribusiness tycoon Kuok Khoon Hong. The company, founded in August 2015, is funded by a group of investors, including Kuok Khoon Hong and audio mixer manufacturer JamHub Corp.

This latest acquisition by BandLab follows numerous purchases in the music sector. BandLab purchased online instrument retailer and distributor Swee Lee for an undisclosed sum in 2012. According to Billboard, sales doubled since the acquisition and it’s now the biggest distributor of instruments and audio equipment in Southeast Asia. BandLab also acquired web music-making service Composr in July, and San Francisco-based manufacturer of high-end instrument accessories MONO Creators Inc. earlier this month.

When asked whether BandLab is hiring staff to help run Rolling Stone International from Singapore, a spokesman told TMN: “We are always looking for talent. As a tech company, we are always looking for talented developers and engineers.”

The move by Rolling Stone will further its international reach. The 48-year-oldpop culture brand already has 12 international editions, including in China, Japan, Italy and Australia. The Australian title is its longest running international edition and is run by Matt Coyte’s Paper Riot publishing company.

Globally, it reaches 65 million readers and its US website Rollingstone.comdrew 27m unique digital visitors in August. However, as with all titles in the publishing sector, Rolling Stone US fell victim to the digital age, losing advertising revenue and readership to fellow online music publications.

Its reputation as a progressive industry voice hasn’t waned, however. Its investigative pieces can be divisive (re: its July 2013 cover featured Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev), cathartic (Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace came out as transgender in its May 2012 issue) and even affect US political strategies (the 2010 profile of General Stanley McChrystal lead to his resignation).

“What has happened last 49 years has already shown that Rolling Stone is more than a brand to people,” Kuok told Bloomberg News. “It is now our shared responsibility to take it into the future.”