DistroKid, repped by Goldman Sachs and Raine, exploring a sale

Grammy Week is abuzz with industry-changing information.

As you should have seen, BMG is seemingly in talks to doubtlessly purchase Harmony.

Sony Music Group additionally selected this week to announce that it’s launching a music rights acquisition JV with Singapore’s GIC, with plans to take a position $2 billion to $3 billion within the enterprise.

At the moment (January 30), MBW brings you information of one other transformative potential deal.

In keeping with a number of robust sources, distribution platform DistroKid is holding talks with potential consumers over a big-money sale.

MBW hears that DistroKid is being repped by each Raine and Goldman Sachs in these discussions.

The quantity being bandied round Los Angeles is USD $2 billion, though some sources counsel that value might escalate even greater.

At the moment’s information comes scorching on the heels of DistroKid investor Perception Holdings confirming that it has acquired Europe-based distribution platform Zebralution from GEMA.

DistroKid was based by Philip Kaplan in 2013 and was valued at $1.3 billion following Perception Companions’ funding in August 2021.

In January 2024, Kaplan took extra of a backseat position on the firm, transitioning from CEO to Chairman.

DistroKid is now run day-to-day by President Phil Bauer.

Bauer beforehand served as DistroKid’s Chief Working Officer since 2018.

The New York-based firm claims that it handles 30% to 40% of recent music releases globally and serves greater than 2 million artists.

In October, DistroKid launched a brand new direct-to-fan gross sales platform, marking the music distributor’s push past audio and video distribution companies and into merchandise gross sales.

The brand new platform, Direct, builds on know-how from direct-to-fan platform Bandzoogle, which DistroKid acquired in 2023.Music Enterprise Worldwide