Warner Discovery Looking To Sell Its Entire Music Catalogs

[RAMROD 109,687]

Warner Bros Discovery is exploring a sale of its music library that could be valued at more than $1bn, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest move by chief executive David Zaslav to reduce debt at the sprawling Hollywood empire.
Since taking control after combining WarnerMedia with his Discovery last year, Zaslav’s team has been scouring the entertainment group — which spans HBO, the Warner Bros movie studio and CNN — to find places to cut into its $50bn in debt.

The Warner Bros movie studio created a music division in the 1950s. In 2004 parent company Time Warner sold the music division, but the group retained its copyrights to a trove of songs, such as the soundtracks to the Batman films.

The process is in early stages and any deal would hold stipulations over access to and use of certain soundtracks, said one person close to the situation.

After a bruising 2022 when the stock lost more than half of its value, shares in Warner Bros Discovery have increased by more than a third this year, as investors bet that the worst is over in terms of losses and restructuring costs.

https://www.ft.com/content/74fc28b8-0499-406e-95d1-a7b99f5e52e9

 

This will be huge. And I am wondering how this will works, cos some of those soundtracks are sharing rights with another record labels. Aside from the artists who are not giving their consent in this, and if they have the power at all to interrupt. FYI Gaga's ASIB OST is one example of this, of course!

[River 117,260]

just let disney buy them and end this idiotic fiasco

[RAMROD 109,687]

1 minute ago, River said:

just let disney buy them and end this idiotic fiasco

Don't think Disney will be allowed to buy a big studio anymore tbh. But there's another studio rumored interested in buying it, 

[River 117,260]

Just now, RAMROD said:

Don't think Disney will be allowed to buy a big studio anymore tbh. But there's another studio rumored interested in buying it, 

yeah I know, well Apple is looking to buy Disney or something like that, so many weird acquisition rumors are going on these days

[OMF 3,469]

16 minutes ago, River said:

yeah I know, well Apple is looking to buy Disney or something like that, so many weird acquisition rumors are going on these days

Apple buying Disney? Lol no chance. Disney is not up for sale, they are too big and powerful 

[Meta Mart 352]

How can they have this 50bn debt, if i have never been paid a cent

[Railing 2,799]

52 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

FYI Gaga's ASIB OST is one example of this, of course!

The ASIB soundtrack was released by Interscope. This sale is seemingly only regarding select WMG releases from 1958 to 2004, which they chose to keep the rights to when it became a separate entity from Warner Bros. 

[pachinko 10,413]

But 1b doesn't help when you are 50b in debt. 
 

why are they in so much debt? 

[Lovelife 460]

52 minutes ago, Aussie said:

Apple buying Disney? Lol no chance. Disney is not up for sale, they are too big and powerful 

Apple is far more rich and they has like $100bn+ in cash just to buy Disney, but No, Apple won't buy Disney anytime soon

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,417]

6 minutes ago, pachinko said:

But 1b doesn't help when you are 50b in debt. 
 

why are they in so much debt? 

It does help if they don't value the music catalog and it cuts down interest.