Mercuriadis Merges Eight Firms into Hipgnosis Artist Partnerships

Mercuriadis detailed plans for his next venture during a keynote conversation at the Music Tectonics conference in Santa Monica, Calif., on Wednesday (Oct. He revealed for the first time that he is rolling up eight very significant management companies to create a juggernaut management company, during a keynote moderated by Music Tectonics director Dmitri Vietze. The combined venture is Hipgnosis Artist Partnerships, and it is combining eight management companies for the new venture.

Hipgnosis Artist Partnerships has not named its target acquisition companies. The first of the planned transactions is set to be announced in the first quarter of 2027. Under the revenue-share model, artists and managers will co-own all assets created during the life of the relationship, with the artist as majority shareholder and the manager as minority owner. Mercuriadis said Hipgnosis Artist Partnerships will lease the infrastructure of Universal, Warner and Sony while deciding how the money is spent.

Mercuriadis built three companies under the Hipgnosis name starting in 2017, acquiring and managing a catalog that included songs by Shakira, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fleetwood Mac and Diana Ross. The consolidated Hipgnosis companies, renamed Recognition Music, were acquired by Sony this past May.