I 5 Music Industry Acquisitions In H1 2022

Entertainment

5 Music Industry Acquisitions In H1 2022

In June 2022, Arab music streamer Anghami acquired Dubai’s Spotlight Events. Here are the details of that deal and four other global music industry acquisitions announced in the first half of the year.

Anghami + Spotlight Events

Anghami now owns events and concert company Spotlight Events. The deal announced in June will see the Dubai-based company become Anghami’s live events arm, including offline activities and activations. Two months earlier, Arab music label Rotana Music Holding, which counts Najwa Karam, Abdul Majeed Abdullah, Wael Kfoury, and Ahlam among its starstudded portfolio, also inked a deal with Anghami, which was the first Arab technology firm to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange, to distribute its collection of original music audio and video content.

SoundCloud + Musiio

In May, SoundCloud acquired Singapore-based AI music company Musiio to strengthen the artist-first platform’s music discovery features. Founded in 2007, SoundCloud is home to more than 300 million tracks from 30 million creators and has users across 190 countries.

Warner Music Group (WMG) + Qanawat Music

In March, major American entertainment and record label WMG entered an agreement to purchase MENA-based music distributor Qanawat Music—a subsidiary of Qanawat FZ LLC and a music distributor in the region. The acquisition will see WMG significantly expand its regional presence and boost Dubai’s position as a media and content creation hub. As per the deal, Qanawat Music will function as a standalone company under the WMG umbrella, led by founder Adnan Al-Obthani.

Snoop Dogg + Death Row Records

In February, Snoop Dogg officially became the owner of Death Row Records. The American hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur purchased the label that launched his career in 1993 with single “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” from investment firm Blackstonecontrolled company MNRK Music Group. After finalizing the acquisition, Snoop Dogg released his 20th studio album “B.O.D.R.” through the label. Death Row Records was established in 1991 and previously owned by Dr. Dre and Marion “Suge” Knight.

Epic Games + Bandcamp

Online record store and music community Bandcamp revealed in March that it had been acquired by North Carolina game developer Epic Games. Led by its co-founder and CEO, Ethan Diamond, directto-fan platform Bandcamp will continue to operate as a standalone marketplace and music community. It will also work alongside Epic Games, cofounded by billionaire Tim Sweeney to expand globally as well as build its live streaming, discovery features, and payment capabilities.

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Digital Assets: Meeting the Demand

Dina Sam’an, Co-founder and Managing Director of CoinMENA, explains how the digital assets exchange came to life and how new licenses and partnerships are spurring its growth.

What is CoinMENA, and what first sparked the idea behind it? CoinMENA is a fully onshore regulated digital asset exchange, licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), where users can safely buy, sell, store, and receive digital assets. My partners and I recognized there was a market need for a fully regulated digital assets exchange with strong banking relationships in the region so investors can safely gain access to this emerging asset class.

CoinMENA has recently obtained its new license from Dubai’s VARA. What does this mean for the platform moving forward? This is a milestone for both CoinMENA and the industry as a whole. The establishment of VARA is a further indication that the industry is maturing on a regional level. Regulatory clarity is extremely important for retail and institutional investors who wish to gain safe exposure to this emerging asset class. Regulatory compliance and maintaining strong relationships with local regulators are top priorities for us.

Dina Sam’an, Co-founder and Managing Director of CoinMENA

legacy financial system with the crypto world. Visa is the largest payments network in the world and through this partnership, we’ll be able to offer a host of exclusive solutions to our users to simplify on-ramp and off-ramp services, from fiat to crypto. Our users are most excited about the release of the CoinMENA VISA Card, which can be used at millions of merchants around the world. This partnership with Visa is a huge step toward achieving our goal to be the simplest and fastest way to go from fiat to crypto, and crypto to fiat.

CoinMENA’s platform is now a part of Visa’s fintech fast track program. How does this make your customers’ lives easier? I’m particularly excited about this partnership because it bridges the Before co-founding CoinMENA, you already had experience in entrepreneurship. Tell us more about your background and how it helped you in establishing the cryptocurrency exchange platform. I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I started my career working in and growing the family’s real estate business. That experience was invaluable because I was immediately thrust into the real world and learned firsthand what it takes to grow and scale a business.

When I first got into crypto, we had to lay the foundations for an industry that did not exist regionally. There was clearly a strong market demand for it, but the landscape was unregulated and that scared off many potential investors, especially institutions. In 2019, I connected with my partners at CoinMENA, who were also thinking of launching a digital assets exchange. From the first meeting, we recognized that our interests were aligned and that our capabilities complemented each other’s perfectly. We immediately got to work, and our first priority was to secure the license from the Central Bank of Bahrain and build solid relationships with regional banks.