The Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter Christine McVie, whose credits include Little Lies and Don’t Stop, has become the latest artist to sell her catalogue of hits to Hipgnosis.
Hipgnosis, the London-listed company that gives investors the chance to cash in on the royalties from evergreen hits, has bought the copyright to McVie’s 115-song portfolio for an undisclosed sum.
“In the last 46 years the band have had three distinct writers and vocalists but Christine’s importance is amply demonstrated by the fact that eight of the 16 songs on the band’s Greatest Hits albums are from Christine,” said Merck Mercuriadis, the founder and chief executive of Hipgnosis and former manager of artists including Elton John, Iron Maiden and Beyoncé.
In January, Hipgnosis acquired the Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham’s 161-song catalogue, which includes hits such as Go Your Own Way.
Hipgnosis, which has spent more than $2bn (£1.4bn) buying the rights to hits by artists from Beyoncé to Neil Young, said that it now owns the rights to 48 of 68 songs on Fleetwood Mac’s most successful albums.
“I am so excited to belong to the Hipgnosis family, and thrilled that you all regard my songs worthy of merit,” said McVie.
Hipgnosis published financial figures showing that McVie’s share of the royalties made by her song catalogue totalled $1.7m last year. McVie’s top five revenue-generating songs – Don’t Stop, Everywhere, You Make Loving Fun, Songbird and Little Lies – accounted for 81% of total revenues.
This year Hipgnosis, which has a market value of £1.4bn, raised £150m to continue its song rights buying spree, valuing its entire catalogue of 65,000 songs at $2.2bn. Overall, Hipgnosis owns the rights to a portfolio of 138 catalogues.
Hipgnosis has capitalised on a surge of music listening during the pandemic to spend $1bn on 84 song catalogues from artists ranging from Neil Young to Shakira in the year to the end of March.
