POPHOUSE AND CYNDI LAUPER ENTER PARTNERSHIP TO CREATE NEW EXPERIENCES PROMOTING HER LEGACY
2024-02-29 06:00Pressrelease
POPHOUSE AND CYNDI LAUPER ENTER PARTNERSHIP TO CREATE NEW EXPERIENCES PROMOTING HER LEGACY
Cyndi Lauper and Björn Ulvaeus.
POPHOUSE ACQUIRES MAJORITY SHARE OF THE PUBLISHING CATALOGUE AND MASTER RECORDING REVENUE OF LEGENDARY MUSIC ICON CYNDI LAUPER
Stockholm, Sweden, 29 February 2024 – Pophouse - the Swedish entertainment company, which is a founding investor of the world-renowned ABBA Voyage immersive virtual concert residency and the force behind immortalizing the rock band KISS as avatars, has today acquired the majority share of award-winning American singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper’s master recording revenue and publishing. Cyndi Lauper and Pophouse will work closely together through a joint venture. Together, they will develop creative activations inspired by Lauper's timeless pop music repertoire*, spanning her iconic career. This includes beloved hits such as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Time After Time," and "True Colors”.
*The acquisition does not include Cyndi’s Broadway music.
Cyndi Lauper comments: “Since we first met, Pophouse has impressed me with their commitment to maintaining and developing my professional life’s work and ensuring its legacy. Their creativity and vision, combined with my continued involvement via our unique joint venture is what is most exciting to me. I can’t wait to participate in this new stage in my musical evolution and I could not be more pleased to know my music will now be in Pophouse’s safe hands as they build upon my legacy in the years to come.”
Working in close collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, Pophouse will follow its unique, value-added approach of drawing upon its world-class, in-house creative and storytelling expertise to introduce her music to new audiences. Pophouse will use its proven, industry-defining playbook to create new content and experiences to enrich Cyndi Lauper’s catalogue for fans old and new, actively seeking to enrich and add value to the brands and artists it partners with.
Today’s announcement marks Pophouse’s first acquisition from an American artist as the company continues to expand beyond its native Nordics into North America. Founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and EQT founder Conni Jonsson in 2014, Pophouse began its venture into music investments in 2022 by acquiring the catalogues of two of Sweden’s most iconic global musical exports, Avicii and Swedish House Mafia. As part of the Avicii and Swedish House Mafia acquisitions, Pophouse also announced the formations of joint ventures with the Avicii Estate and Swedish House Mafia band members respectively to further develop and safeguard their legacy through future global endeavors.
Pophouse CEO Per Sundin adds “Cyndi Lauper is an icon, with a career that has inspired generation after generation of music lovers. That she has entrusted us to protect and continue to grow her legacy is a privilege we are proud to accept. We set ourselves apart through our emphasis on artist and brand development, so that we can nurture the value of our investment, and we are pleased Cyndi endorses our vision for her remarkable catalogue of work.”
As one of few players based outside of the US or UK, Pophouse is Sweden’s next big creative export into the global music industry and is distinguished in the global market by its core Swedish values of collaboration and openness.
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ABOUT CYNDI LAUPER:
With a career spanning over four decades, and with more than 50 million records sold worldwide, Cyndi Lauper is one of the most recognized and celebrated music artists in the world. She first rose to fame in the 1980s with now-iconic pop hits such as ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ and ‘Time After Time’, leading to her winning the 1984 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. In 2013, Lauper's musical Kinky Boots won six Tony Awards, with Lauper herself winning the Tony Award for Best Original Score, which made her the first female to win the category by herself. Today, Cyndi Lauper is an icon for female empowerment and a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights across the world.
About Pophouse Entertainment
Pophouse acquires and develops brands within entertainment – specialising in music catalogue investments. Acquired catalogues include Avicii and Swedish House Mafia. Unlike traditional entertainment IP investors, Pophouse adds value to their investments through artist-centric concept development by working closely with existing stakeholders. With a proven track record of successful ventures such as the investment in ABBA Voyage, Pophouse continues to redefine entertainment by pushing boundaries, embracing technology, and creating unforgettable experiences for fans worldwide. The company was founded in 2014 by EQT founder Conni Jonsson and pop music icon Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA).
https://newsroom.notified.com/news/281609/pophouse-and-cyndi-lauper-enter-partnership-t
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Feb 15th, 2024 Stockholm
they just want to have fun...
yndi Lauper, ’80s Icon, Sells Her Music to ABBA Star, Plans Immersive Theater Show
FEBRUARY 29, 2024 | BLOOMBERG NEWS
Singer Cyndi Lauper is selling her music catalog, including the 1980s hits True Colors and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, to Sweden’s Pophouse Entertainment Group AB as part of a project to create new outlets for the singer’s work.
The Swedish company — founded by ABBA star Bjorn Ulvaeus and EQT AB Chairman Conni Jonsson — said it acquired the rights to Lauper’s music for an undisclosed sum and is forming a joint venture with the singer to manage the catalog.
“I’ve had other companies approach me, and I really didn’t have any interest in selling my catalog,” Lauper, 70, said in an interview at Pophouse’s headquarters in Stockholm. “But this is different.”
The singer and the company aim to exploit her music through live shows, television and other projects. Keeping performers in front of the public, as Pophouse has successfully done with the legendary group ABBA, can protect and improve on the steady returns that song libraries produce.
Lauper, who has sold more than 50 million records over four decades, declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal, beyond saying Pophouse bought “a majority” of the catalog. She was enticed by the company’s ability to combine music and art through technology.
“I thought, ‘OK, they have energy and everyone is highly creative,’” Lauper said. “And it gives me the opportunity to grow my legacy as opposed to watching it on commercials. I have bigger plans.”
One of the creative projects being planned is an immersive theater experience that surrounds and pulls viewers in, following in the footsteps of ABBA Voyage. That show, which premiered in 2022, has sold more than 2.1 million tickets for performances featuring three-dimensional renderings of the four former band members.
Pophouse is the biggest investor in ABBA Voyage, and is planning a similar venture with avatars of the rock band KISS, which retired in December after a 50-year career.
Lauper’s show will be based on the women in her life, set in her grandmother’s garden in the New York district of Queens, with the singer hoping to take the stage, she said.
“It’s about the people that influenced me — my mother, my aunt and my grandmother,” she said. “When I saw ABBA Voyage, I had this idea of bringing them back to life and bringing that whole neighborhood back to life.”
Decades from now, a hologram could replace Lauper onstage, the singer said. The timing for the show is up in the air, pending a decision on a potential global tour separate from the Pophouse collaboration.
Other potential projects include a TV series, a festival and an immersive installation. Lauper’s Broadway music, including multiple Tony Award-winner Kinky Boots, isn’t part of the Pophouse deal.
Pophouse, founded in 2014, began its venture into music investments in 2022 by acquiring the catalogs of the DJ Avicii and Swedish House Mafia, two of the country’s biggest music exports. As part of the deals, Pophouse also formed ventures with the sellers.
Other recent transactions in music catalogs include Sony Group Corp. (NYSE: SONY)’s reported acquisition of half of pop icon Michael Jackson’s catalog from the trustees of his estate for at least $600 million. Singer Rod Stewart sold his publishing and recorded music rights to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group for about $100 million.
“Cyndi is a dream partner for Pophouse,” Chief Executive Officer Per Sundin said in the interview. “She shares our ambition and desire to do the unexpected and push creativity beyond conventional limits. We believe in artists with stories to tell, that we can build upon.”
Songs as an asset class can generate relatively steady returns. The market reached a frenzy in 2021 and 2022, but suffered some setbacks with the recent jump in borrowing costs. The high-profile music investor, Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd., whose catalog includes songs by Neil Young and Blondie, canceled an interim dividend in October.
“We look for iconic artists that meant something in music history, and we want to enhance or amplify and expose the music to new generations,” Sundin said, adding that doing so tends to boost streaming as well.
