A nighttime shot of Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city. Photo Credit: Gleb Makarov
Larrosa Music Group has officially announced that it’s raised €15 million ($16.01 million at the present exchange rate) to invest in Spanish-language song catalogs.
Madrid-based Larrosa, which arrived on the scene in 2020 and maintains its “administrative headquarters” in Estonia, just recently revealed the multimillion-dollar tranche via a general release. Founded by the namesake Cristian Larrosa (who doubles as co-founder and COO of Auris Capital and as a partner with Raleigh-headquartered SongVest), the three-year-old company bills itself as “a specialized consulting firm.”
Included within the latter are services through which artists can ask questions about the industry, request feedback about their releases, and benefit from “contract reviews” provided by Larrosa’s legal team, according to the business’s website. Additionally, Larrosa says that it provides upfront payments for future royalties, enables rightsholders to sell “fractionalized shares of SEC-certified music royalty streams,” and, of course, invests in select IP.
Regarding these investments, Larrosa Music Group has indicated that the newly revealed $16 million tranche (provided by backers in the U.S. as well as Spain) will set the stage for the purchase of “mainstream catalogs.”
The entity’s (Spanish-language) release about the raise also touts the capital’s perceived significance when it comes to SongShares, or the official name of the above-described fractionalized royalty-investment offering. SongShares, Larrosa spelled out, “will be a key tool in managing the company’s acquired catalogs.”
In a statement, Cristian Larrosa emphasized his ambitious vision for the capital and his company’s broader role in the contemporary music industry.
“This investment is a reflection of the confidence investors have in our business model and our ability to lead the Spanish-speaking music market,” the SongVest Records associate partner communicated, per Google’s translation of his remarks. “We are excited for what the future holds, and we are committed to continuing to innovate and lead the market in the coming years.”
Aside from Larrosa Music Group’s $16 million raise, the likes of Lyric Capital, Cutting Edge, MusicBird, Shamrock Capital, and others have to this point in 2023 touched upon plans to inject sizable sums into catalogs.
Meanwhile, evidence suggests that billions in deals – such as the reportedly $200 million sale of Justin Bieber’s body of work, a reportedly $200 million transaction involving a portion of Dr. Dre’s song rights, and a reportedly $70 million play for Metro Boomin’s IP – have wrapped since the year kicked off.
Worth highlighting in conclusion is the seemingly growing prevalence of Europe-based catalog investors, as the Netherlands’ Pythagoras Music Fund earlier this week detailed its acquisition of Barton Music (including the rights to several Frank Sinatra classics).