Possible counteroffer by Blackstone could derail agreement with US fund Concord Music The troubled owner of music back catalogues ranging from Beyoncé to Neil Young has said it would accept a takeover offer from Blackstone, after the private equity investor revealed it was considering outbidding a rival rights owner’s deal. Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) launched a strategic review after a turbulent period on the London Stock Exchange, and now faces the prospect of a takeover contest after saying on Sunday it would back Blackstone’s approach over last week’s agreement with Concord Music ..read more

New album The Tortured Poets Department flies off the shelves as Swift breaks record for most Spotify streams in a single day Taylor Swift fans joined queues outside vinyl shops yesterday for the annual Record Store Day in the hope of securing a limited edition note from “the desk of Taylor Swift”. The “handwritten” note came with a limited number of copies of the musician’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, which was released on Friday ..read more

Shares in Beyoncé and Neil Young song fund rise amid hopes uncertainty over its future could be over Business live – latest updates The embattled British music royalties investment fund Hipgnosis, which owns the rights to songs by artists from Beyoncé to Neil Young, has agreed to a $1.4bn (£1.1bn) takeover by a music and theatrical rights rival after months of turmoil over the company’s structure and leadership. The Concord Chorus deal, which offers Hipgnosis shareholders a 32% premium to Thursday’s share price at $1.16 a share, could put an end to uncertainty over the FTSE 250 firm’s future ..read more

The resale website boss is cagey about talk of it profiting from dodgy touts, but does seem rattled by Labour’s plan to cap resale prices Cris Miller is confident that his musical hero, Bob Marley, would have approved of how his company makes its profits. “I think after some education, yeah, he would,” says the global managing director of Viagogo, who has flown from New York to London as part of a mission to dispel what he sees as unfair myths about the ticketing company. Viagogo is a website that facilitates the resale of tickets to concerts, theatres and sporting events, taking a slice ..read more

The superstar arrives in Europe next month – and Swifties, tourist boards and venues are already preparing Tim Brown, 44, and his wife, Marcella, 34, may not consider themselves bona fide “Swifties”, but when it was announced last June that Taylor Swift would be visiting their corner of the globe this summer they could not resist joining the scramble for a pair of tickets. A post-pandemic appetite for live music events has fuelled huge worldwide interest in the American singer-songwriter’s Eras tour, which surpassed in $1bn sales in November to become the highest-grossing series of concerts in ..read more

How did a radio repair man make an instrument so sublime that it makes giants of music weep with reverence? As the Fender Stratocaster turns 70, we explore its extraordinary life ‘I found the cheapest Strat in all the shops,” says Nile Rodgers, speaking to me from Miami Beach, the very place he went trawling for what would later be regarded as the world’s greatest electric guitar. “I traded in my Gibson Barney Kessel. The guy behind the counter gave me the Strat – and $300 back. It was the real runt of the litter.” In a nod to the model played by his hero Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969, Rod ..read more

Years of work by alleged victims and advocates have led to an investigation of the mogul and a suit against Russell Simmons Last week, the world watched as agents of the US Department of Homeland Security dramatically raided two properties – one in Miami and one in Los Angeles – belonging to the music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, as part of an ongoing investigation into sex-trafficking allegations. What fewer people probably knew was that just a couple of weeks earlier, the former hip-hop executive Drew Dixon had tracked down another industry legend, Russell Simmons, to serve him with a defamatio ..read more

In Instagram post clarifying earlier statement, singer says performing is ‘the joy of my life’ Lizzo has clarified a statement last week in which the musician appeared to be declaring her intention to leave the entertainment industry. In a video posted to her Instagram on Tuesday, Lizzo said that her “I quit” statement was in reference to giving into negativity, and not creating or performing her music. “When I say I quit, I mean I quit giving any negative energy attention,” the four-time Grammy award winner said. “What I’m not gonna quit is the joy of my life, which is making music, which is ..read more

Small venues are the heart of our musical culture. Here’s my two-pronged plan to keep that heart beating Grassroots venues are the foundation upon which the mighty British music industry has been built, fuelling the phenomenal level of talent this small island has produced. Yet while successive governments have shouted about how they are a shining demonstration of the country’s creativity, the very same people have cut funding and opened the cultural sector to the most brutal market logic. Alongside government neglect, small venues across the country also face rising trade costs, pressure on d ..read more

Insight report based on data from UK Musicians’ Census also found 33% said they had been sexually harassed in the industry More than half of women have experienced gender discrimination while working as a musician, with a third reporting being sexually harassed, a report has revealed. Female musicians are more than eight times more likely to have experienced gender discrimination than their male colleagues, at 51% compared with 6 ..read more