Songtradr to Acquire 7digital for $33.8M to Deliver ‘Enhanced Offering’
Los Angeles-based Australian B2B music licensing company Songtradr is set to acquire 7digital, a UK-based publicly listed music technology company.
The deal, for A$33.8 million (£19.4 million) is expected to be finalised in Q1 2023.
“Having closely followed 7digital’s evolution for a long time, we are delighted to have reached agreement to combine our businesses, expanding our position in the B2B music licensing and technology ecosystem,” said Paul Wiltshire, CEO of Songtradr.
“We are very excited with respect to what our collective team will be able to achieve in delivering an enhanced offering for our clients and to help shape the future of music licensing.”
7digital provides a catalogue of over 80 million licensed tracks and offers API services to power music in apps across “hundreds of companies” in fitness, social, radio, gaming and background music.
Songtradr says the deal will give it a “comprehensive music and technology solution for digital platforms and music rights holders”.
It delivers “both music audio and rights at scale, metadata enhancement, digital rights management, content tracking and royalty reporting”.
The company adds the deal will result in the “accelerated execution of Songtradr’s growth strategy, removing inefficiencies and friction, and simplifying global music licensing”.
“Songtradr’s ambition for the business matches our own and there is strong strategic alignment on how best to drive growth for the Combined Group, as well as how best to serve the needs of a growing B2B market,” according to 7digital CEO Paul Langworthy.
Langworthy is set to join Songtradr’s executive team, but other senior executives will step down.
The 46-strong team is kept on. The 7digital office will stay open for the time being.
But Wiltshire intends to get a central London office to house all the company’s UK staffers.
One of the world’s largest B2B music licensing companies, Songtradr delivers music solutions to music rights holders as well as brands, agencies, digital platforms and content creators.
It is designed to connect music rights holders such as artists, labels, and publishers with brands, advertisers, video games, digital platforms and content creators.
The 7digital purchase follows the 2022 buyout of music-classification platform Musicube.
Songtradr’s portfolio includes Massive Music (acquired in June 2021), Big Sync Music (February 2019) and Song Zu (March 2021), film, TV and gaming music data platform Tunefind, and Pretzel, which provides DMCA-proof music for Twitch and YouTube livestreamers.
In September 2020, Songtradr invested $1m in Sydney/LA-based music credit resource Jaxsta.