Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillerie. Photo Credit: Believe
About two weeks after reporting approximately 32 percent year-over-year revenue growth for 2022, Believe has announced a deal for “full ownership” of Sentric and set its sights on “building a digital-first innovative music publishing business.”
Paris-headquartered Believe, which began trading on the public market almost two years ago, announced the Sentric buyout today. Worth mentioning at the outset is that the song-play monitor Utopia Music across 2021 and 2022 purchased all manner of companies, Quincy Jones-backed Musimap, Lyric Financial, Proper Music Group, and Liverpool-based indie publisher Sentric among them.
Sentric, Utopia said upon detailing the latter transaction, would serve as “the foundation” of an envisioned royalty management services division. However, November of 2022 saw the Swiss fintech company reveal plans to cut staffing expenses by a fifth, pointing to the “macroeconomic environment” and an across-the-board focus “on sustainable growth.”
Then, Utopia last month sold ROSTR back to its founders, approximately one year after buying the music industry directory. Meanwhile, seven-year-old Utopia is likewise facing litigation from rights management and licensing platform SourceAudio over an alleged acquisition agreement that fell through.
It’s against this backdrop that Believe has purchased Sentric in a deal that it says values the publisher at €47 million ($51.25 million at the current exchange rate).
After highlighting the global publishing revenue that CISAC identified for 2022 – and touting Sentric’s “proprietary and innovative platform” as “one of the most advanced solutions in the market” – Believe made clear that the acquisition represents the “first step” of a multifaceted publishing buildout.
To be sure, the ongoing “digitalization of the publishing market” presents “an attractive opportunity to build a service for songwriters and publishers,” according to the digital music company, with Sentric positioned to function “as a key element of that future offering.”
“The acquisition of Sentric is the first step for Believe in the roll-out of a global and comprehensive publishing offer,” Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillerie drove home. “We are excited to be able to immediately expand the services we provide to our existing TuneCore clients with Sentric’s best-in-class royalty collection service, while starting to work on future innovative products and services for all of Believe’s songwriters and publishers.”
And on this front, Believe also stated that the integration of Sentric, which “recently” reupped with TuneCore and is said to operate at scale in north of 200 territories, “will further strengthen publishing for TuneCore’s self-releasing artists and expand it to new geographies.”
17-year-old Sentric’s existing leadership team is expected to remain aboard the post-sale company, according to Believe, which was worth €9.53 ($10.39) per share when the market closed today.