A shot of Pinnacle’s previous headquarters in Nashville. Photo Credit: Louis Chader
Cutting Edge Media Music (CEMM) has officially announced that it’s obtained $100 million in new financing from Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ: PNFP) and others.
The Cutting Edge Group division, which bills itself as “the leading international full service provider of music for the film, television and advertising industries” and isn’t to be confused with Chicago’s Cutting Edge Music Group, unveiled the $100 million tranche today.
Aside from Nashville-based Pinnacle, “a consortium of banks” provided the capital to Cutting Edge, which operates a soundtrack arm called Lakeshore Records as well as a namesake publishing unit. And while it’s unclear precisely how much of the financing will reach music, Cutting Edge founder and CEO Philip Moross touched upon his company’s plans for the funding in a brief statement.
“I look forward to our partnership with Pinnacle to help give the next wave of film and TV composers the opportunity to monetize their catalogues,” indicated Moross, whose 30-year-old company is said to have published and released the music for Stranger Things, Hacksaw Ridge, and Red Dead Redemption 2, to name some.
In a concise statement of his own, Pinnacle EVP of music and entertainment Andy Moats communicated: “The team at Pinnacle is thrilled to expand our relationship with Cutting Edge, whose deep understanding of the film/TV composer universe aligns with our mission to honor and support creative communities.”
More broadly, the 12on12 owner Cutting Edge is hardly the only entity that’s poised to keep on injecting cash into song rights despite rising rates, economic turbulence, and the possibility of a recession.
On top of a steady stream of deals from the likes of Hipgnosis, Reservoir, Exceleration, Ultra, Primary Wave, Seeker Music, and Universal Music, 2023’s initial six or so weeks have brought rumors of what would be the biggest catalog deal to date. Additionally, Switzerland’s MusicBird last week announced that it had obtained a $100 million loan to acquire more song rights yet, while Shamrock Capital Advisors’ entertainment fund is now equipped with $600 million.
In light of Cutting Edge’s own $100 million funding announcement, it bears mentioning in conclusion that Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD) is reportedly looking to offload its music library.
But the publicly traded company hasn’t confirmed or even responded to these reported plans, and anonymous sources have signaled that the potential transaction would come with multiple “stipulations” concerning the usage of the music at hand.
Needless to say, the latter could prove a major hang-up in negotiations – especially as Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly seeking a cool $1 billion for the works in question.