The market for music catalogues as an investment asset is reaching a milestone, with financial backers of several major rights companies now moving to cash out. The planned sales of Anthem, Iconoclast and Crescendo come amid a wider wave of mergers and acquisitions in the music industry this year, reflecting how catalogue investing has evolved from a niche pursuit into a mainstream asset class attracting private equity, insurance firms, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds since Hipgnosis Songs Fund's 2018 London listing.

Iconoclast, backed by PIMCO and holding rights to artists including Diplo, David Cassidy, Marianne Faithfull, Tony Bennett and Robbie Robertson, is reportedly close to a roughly $500 million sale to Irving Azoff's Iconic Artists Group. Anthem Entertainment, whose portfolio includes Rush, Timbaland and Spider-Man music rights, is nearing a sale to Influence Media, after its main owner, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, failed to secure satisfactory offers in earlier attempts in 2017 and 2022. The rating agency KBRA has rated over $12.9 billion in music asset-backed securities since 2020, underlining the scale of the sector, with advisers suggesting the market is now shifting from acquiring catalogues to consolidating larger, established firms.