Nashville Newcomer Round Hill Music Adding Songwriters

Round Hill Music, a private equity firm that focuses on buying iconic song catalogs, has set up shop in Nashville and started signing new songwriters to its roster.

The company, headquartered in New York with another office in Los Angeles, has built up a 6,000-song catalog by buying the publishing rights to songs from artists such as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra.

Round Hill made its mark in Nashville last year by buying the Big Tractor catalog, which included songs from Blake Shelton, Hunter Hayes, Lonestar and others.

But in addition to banking on old songs increasing royalty revenue, Round Hill Music also is signing new songwriters, starting with Mississippi YouTube sensation Lindsey Lee. The firm opened its new office here at the start of the year.

The Round Hill Nashville office is led by Vice President and General Manager Mark Brown and Director of Artists and Repertoire Kari Smith. Brown has experience working with major labels in a variety of roles, including artist development.

Lee joins a roster of established writers. When Round Hill bought Big Tractor, it also added songwriters Wade Kirby and Rachel Proctor.

Round Hill arrived in Nashville after it purchased songwriter Marti Frederiksens Sienna Songs catalog. Frederiksen remains with the company. Brown said Round Hill is on the brink of signing more new writers.

Both pop and country

Round Hill Music, founded in 2010 by Wall Street veteran Josh Gruss, who studied at Berklee College of Music, started an investment fund as part of its strategy to buy up established song catalogs. According to a Jan. 14 filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Round Hill Music raised $69.75 million in an initial offering.

I think one of the main missions of the company is to acquire iconic songs and iconic songwriters catalogs to create new revenue streams, other than just collecting the annuity from the catalog, Brown said. I think they also realize … its important to fit into the fabric of (Nashville), which involves bringing on new talent.

Brown indicated that after the signing of Lee, the company in the coming weeks plans to add more writers who focus on both pop and country. Lee has garnered more than 6.3 million views on YouTube for her covers of popular songs. But Smith said Lee caught the companys attention as a songwriter.

Lee and Frederiksen had a co-writing session a year ago that was arranged to write songs for her solo career. But during the session, Frederiksen was impressed with Lees writing ability.

Shes a country writer but also a pop writer, Smith said. Her goal is to be the Bonnie McKee of her generation.

Click here to view the original article

Nashville newcomer Round Hill Music adding songwriters

Round Hill Music, a private equity firm that focuses on buying iconic song catalogs, has set up shop in Nashville and started signing new songwriters to its roster. The company, headquartered in New York with another office in Los Angeles, has built up a 6,000-song catalog by buying the publishing rights to songs from artists such as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra.