Hipgnosis Paid $7.5 Million for Barry Manilow’s Catalog — Plus Other Interesting Facts About the Soured Song-Rights Deal

How much did Barry Manilow sell his music catalog for? Thanks to new legal filings, we have the answer. Photo Credit: Matt Becker

How much did Barry Manilow sell his music catalog for? Four years after Hipgnosis Songs Fund announced the purchase, a new lawsuit has revealed interesting details including the deal’s size.Barry Manilow just recently submitted that lawsuit, we reported yesterday, after Hipgnosis in early August reportedly levied a complaint of its own across the pond. In short, the ugly legal battle centers on a bonus-payments dispute stemming from the parties’ 2020 agreement.

Intriguing on multiple levels – including because of its timing – the courtroom confrontation is also providing worthwhile insight into the underlying transaction. Overall, concrete specifics about IP sales are few and far between despite the sub-sector’s steady stream of investments.

With that said, how much did Barry Manilow sell his music catalog for?

Barry Manilow’s Hipgnosis Catalog Deal by the Numbers – The Size of HSF’s One-Time PaymentAccording to the legal text, Hipgnosis paid Manilow “an upfront one-time payment” totaling $7.5 million.

In keeping with the play’s initial announcement and coverage at the time, the deal extended to the artist’s recording royalties – and specifically, to quote from what’s described as a section of the actual contract, “‘worldwide income, revenue, earnings and financial interests of every type whatsoever from any and all sources and payors, in perpetuity pertaining to the masters [sic] recordings’” at hand.

The Disputed Bonus Payments: Here’s How Much Manilow Says He’s OwedOn top of the $7.5 million, Manilow was to receive a total of $1.5 million in bonus compensation (two payments at $750,000 apiece), per the suit. Predictably, given the action, the one-time Grammy winner alleges that Hipgnosis has failed to cough up the additional pay.

Without digging too far into the language associated with the relevant contractual clause, the convoluted deal seemingly tied the bonuses to 10% year-over-year increases in the revenue Hipgnosis generated from the recording rights.

Running with the description from Manilow and his team, exceeding 10% annual growth for each of the initial three years would unlock $750,000, followed by another $750,000 bonus if the same was true of the first four years post-sale.

How much does Barry Manilow’s catalog generate annually? Looking beyond the disagreement’s methodology nuances – possibly including contrasting views of whether year-one royalties would set a baseline for future years or whether they themselves would need to increase by 10% from a prior period for bonus eligibility – the text also discloses Hipgnosis’ earnings from the Manilow catalog.

As laid out in the complaint, Hipgnosis “earned $404,388.00 in cash income from the” Manilow masters in the first year, followed by $539,822 in year two, $493,309 in year three, and $550,383 in year four.

Barry Manilow’s Other Qualms With HipgnosisElsewhere in the complaint, Manilow alleges that “false representations” concerning Hipgnosis’ promotional capabilities played a part in his decision to sell – though with a full understanding of the situation, he wouldn’t have pursued the sale.

“Hipgnosis not only failed to make good on its promises to market and promote Manilow’s music,” the text reads in part, “but it lacked skilled and competent personnel to do so. It did not devote an experienced team to pursue this goal, nor could it retain the personnel it did have on a long-term basis.”