Justin Bieber sells music rights for $200m

Pop star sold his music publishing and recording catalogue shares to Hipgnosis Songs Capital, the company said.

Pop juggernaut Justin Bieber has sold his music publishing and recording catalogue shares to the Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital for $200m, the company said, marking the industry’s latest blockbuster rights deal.

The sale has been rumoured for weeks and sees the 28-year-old join a who’s who of artists who have cashed out recently on their catalogues.

Hipgnosis did not publicly disclose the terms of the deal, but a source close to the matter told AFP news agency it was worth about $200m.

“The impact of Justin Bieber on global culture over the last 14 years has truly been remarkable,” Hipgnosis chief Merck Mercuriadis, a longtime music industry executive, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“At only 28 years of age, he is one of a handful of defining artists of the streaming era that has revitalised the entire music industry, taking a loyal and worldwide audience with him on a journey from teen phenomenon to culturally important artist.”

Hipgnosis Songs Capital is a $1bn venture between financial giant Blackstone and the British Hipgnosis Song Management. Hipgnosis said they acquired Bieber’s interest in his publishing copyrights to his 290-song back catalogue – all of his music released prior to December 31, 2021.

Bieber’s longtime home Universal will continue to administer the catalogue, another source close to the deal said, and still owns the artist’s master recordings. Hipgnosis has acquired the artist’s stake in his masters as well as his neighbouring rights – a royalty that sees its owner receive a payment every time a song is played publicly.

Contemporary stars, including Justin Timberlake and Shakira, have sold large stakes in their work – both also struck deals with Hipgnosis – but the move has mostly been seen among legacy artists like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

The staggering sums – Springsteen’s catalogue went to Sony for a reported $500bn – are considered safe bets both for older artists getting their finances in order and investors who can count on consistent returns from time-tested music and the viability of streaming.

Younger catalogues are seen as riskier territory, but Bieber is among the best-selling artists ever, and now Hipgnosis has his share in some of the 21st century’s biggest hits, including Baby and Sorry.

After the Canadian native was discovered on YouTube as a teen, Bieber skyrocketed to global fame, selling more than 150 million records.

He has charted eight number-one records on Billboard’s top albums list, and his songs have streamed on Spotify alone more than 32 billion times.

Bieber’s health has suffered recently, with the singer going on an indefinite touring hiatus after he revealed he had been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a rare complication of shingles that for him caused partial facial paralysis.

Music catalogues have always changed hands, but the current publishing sales boom had escalated rapidly, with financial markets increasingly drawn to lucrative music portfolios as an asset class.

Mercuriadis’s Hipgnosis, which went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2018, has played a large part in publicising the spike in sales.

The sector had seemed to cool recently, but the Bieber deal shows investors are still hungry for music acquisitions.

Owners of a song’s publishing rights receive a cut in various scenarios, including radio play and streaming, album sales, and use in advertising and movies. Recording rights govern reproduction and distribution.

The flurry of sales came amid a wider conversation over artists’ ownership of the work, amplified in large part by Taylor Swift, who has found resounding success as she re-records her first six albums so she can control their master recording rights.

That move stemmed from Swift’s very public feud with Scooter Braun, the music manager whose company once owned her original masters, and later sold them to the investment firm Shamrock Holdings.

Braun, Bieber’s manager for 15 years, said in a statement, “When Justin made the decision to make a catalogue deal we quickly found the best partner to preserve and grow this amazing legacy was Merck and Hipgnosis.”

“Justin is truly a once in a generation artist and that is reflected and acknowledged by the magnitude of this deal.”

SOURCE: AFP

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Being Homosexual Isn’t A Crime, It Is Only A Sin – Pope Francis Declares

 Leader of the global Roman Catholic faithful, Pope Francis has declared as “unjust,” laws that criminalize same-sex relationships.

He admonished Catholic bishops who support laws against Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) to welcome such people to the Church because they were all God’s children and God loves all His children.
“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” the Pope said during an interview on January 24 with The Associated Press.

He stressed that issues of same-sex issues could only be classified as a “sin,” adding that Bishops against LGBTQ persons were doing so largely as a result of attitudes to cultural backgrounds.

“These bishops have to have a process of conversion,” he said, adding that they should apply “tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.”

Only a handful of African countries have legalized same-sex relations. In most parts of the continent it is outlawed and persons found guilty are subject to prison terms.
Ghana’s parliament is currently seized with an anti-LGBTQ Bill that has sharply divided public opinion.

The bill, officially known as ‘The Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill’ was laid before the House last year and referred to the relevant Committee for among others, public consultation.
It was sponsored by eight MPs, seven from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and one from the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Source: ghanaweb.com

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Cope with your own debt’, China tells US over Zambia debt relief

Washington and Beijing are vying for influence in Africa, where Chinese banks are major lenders.

The Chinese government says the United States should stop pressuring Beijing on debt relief for Zambia and focus on averting a government default at home, which could have repercussions for the global economy.

“The biggest contribution that the US can make to the debt issues outside the country is to cope with its own debt problem and stop sabotaging other sovereign countries’ active efforts to solve their debt issues,” the Chinese embassy in Zambia said in a statement on Tuesday.

The US government has a cap of $31.4 trillion on how much it can borrow, and it reached that limit on Thursday.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen implemented “extraordinary measures” to ensure the US government can continue paying its bills in the short term and then travelled to Africa. On a visit to Zambia, she said it was crucial for the country to address its heavy debt burden with China.

The country failed to make a $42.5m bond payment in November 2020, becoming Africa’s first sovereign nation to default during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s taken far too long already to resolve this matter,” Yellen said on Monday. Washington is trying to woo African nations as the influence on the continent of its rivals Russia and China grows.

During her visit to Africa, which also included Senegal and South Africa, Yellen pushed to expand US trade and business ties.

“The United States is all in on Africa, and all in with Africa,” Yellen said on Friday in Dakar as she touted the fruits of a new “mutually beneficial” US economic strategy towards Africa.

In responding to Yellen, China zeroed in on the battle between Republican lawmakers and Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration over raising the US debt limit to allow more borrowing to keep the government running.

“Even if the US one day solves its debt problem, it is not qualified to make groundless accusations against or press other countries out of selfish interests,” the Chinese embassy statement said.

Chinese development banks have emerged as major lenders to poor countries around the world for natural resources, transport and power projects although that lending has fallen sharply and steadily since 2016, according to Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.

New loan commitments dropped to eight projects totalling $3.7bn in 2021, down from a peak of 151 projects worth $80bn in 2016, according to data compiled by the centre.

At present, 22 low-income African countries are either already in debt distress or at high risk of debt distress, according to the UK-based Chatham House. Chinese lenders account for 12 per cent of Africa’s private and public external debt, which increased more than fivefold to $696bn from 2000 to 2020.

Washington has repeatedly expressed concern in recent weeks over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow as Russia wages its invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in December said he expected his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to visit in 2023. If it were to take place, analysts say the visit could be interpreted as a public show of solidarity amid the war in Ukraine.

Last month, then-Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi suggested China would deepen ties with Russia in the year ahead.

He also blamed the US for the deterioration in relations between the world’s two largest economies, saying Beijing has “firmly rejected” Washington’s “erroneous China policy” of applying pressure on trade and technology and criticising China over human rights and its claims to a broad swath of the Western Pacific.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Tanzania opposition leader Lissu returns from exile

 His return follows President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s announcement this month of the end of a ban on political gatherings in Tanzania.

Tanzanian opposition leader and former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu returned home after more than two years in exile in Europe to a cheering crowd on Wednesday, after the government lifted a ban on political rallies.

A former lawmaker and a fierce critic of the government, Lissu initially left the country to seek treatment abroad after he was shot 16 times, mostly in his lower abdomen, in his car by unknown gunmen in the administrative capital Dodoma in 2017.

He had been arrested eight times in the year leading up to the attack.

Lissu was welcomed by a large gathering of his supporters at the Julius Nyerere International Airport, after flying in from Brussels before making his way to address a rally in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

He was seen waving his Chadema party flag while sitting atop a car as he greeted supporters who had gathered along the roads and were following him on foot, cars and motorcycles.

Lissu had returned for a few months in 2020 to challenge then-President John Magufuli in an election. However, shortly after the election he fled to the residence of the German ambassador after receiving death threats, and then left the country again.

His return follows President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s announcement this month of the end of a ban on political rallies imposed by her hardline predecessor Magufuli, in an overture to the opposition.

The Chadema party on Saturday held its first mass rally since the lifting of the 2016 ban, led by its leader Freeman Mbowe in the lakeside city of Mwanza.

The government’s move has been cautiously welcomed by rights groups and the opposition as a boost for democracy, with Hassan overturning some of Magufuli’s authoritarian policies.

Lissu was last in Tanzania in late 2020 contesting the election against Magufuli, who died just five months after winning his second term. The victory was disputed and the opposition called for protests. Lissu took refuge with diplomats after threats to his life, before escaping the country.

Under Magufuli, who was first elected in 2015 as a straight-talking man of the people, political gatherings were outlawed, opposition leaders detained and media cowed.

Nicknamed the “Bulldozer” for his authoritarian leadership style, Magufuli had hardline policies and an uncompromising style of governance that saw Tanzania’s reputation for stable democracy in the region badly damaged.

Since the sudden death of Magufuli in March 2021, Hassan has reversed some of his most controversial policies and promised reforms long demanded by the opposition.

But hopes dimmed in July that year when Mbowe was arrested on charges of “terrorism financing”. He was released after seven months but some critics labelled Hassan a “dictator”.

She sat down face to face with Lissu in Brussels in early 2022, again buoying hopes that change could be on the horizon.

Earlier this week, Tanzania’s information minister said the government was planning to amend a media bill that critics say restricts freedom of expression, but gave no details of the proposed changes.

“President Samia Suluhu Hassan, through her government and party, have shown they are ready for a new journey. We need to demonstrate that we are also ready for that,” Lissu said.

“I am coming home for the new beginning of our nation.”

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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