Hipgnosis Acquires Emile Haynie Catalog, Stakes in Hits by Lana Del Rey, Kanye West

Variety Staff

Hipgnosis Songs announced Thursday that it has acquired a music catalog from producer Emile Haynie. According to the announcement, Hipgnosis has purchased 100% of Haynie’s worldwide copyrights to 122 songs including Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness,” Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out Of Heaven” and “Runaway” by Kanye West featuring Pusha T, among others.

Haynie has built an impressive hip-hop resume that includes executive producer credits on Kid Cudi’s “Man on the Moon: The End of Day” and “Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.”

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In addition, Haynie produced Lana Del Rey’s 2012 breakout album “Born to Die,” which has been streamed over 1 billion times on Spotify alone, and portions of Adele’s diamond-certified “25” and Bruno Mars’ Grammy-winning “Unorthodox Jukebox” album.

Said Merck Mercuriadis, founder of The Family (Music) Limited and Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited: “I’m delighted to welcome Emile to the Hipgnosis family. He is one of the most influential producers of the last decade and with Lana Del Ray, Kid Cudi, Eminem, Bruno Mars, Fun and many others he has made important records that have inspired so many other great creators.”

“Emile’s catalogue contains so many works that were culture shifting moments in music,” added Neil Jacobson, founder of Crescent Drive Productions. “There’s a depth and a grit to Emile’s sound which is the through line to all these works and is palpable to all those that love amazing production.”

Founded last year by Mercuriadis and Chic cofounder Nile Rodgers, Hignosis has acquired full or partial stakes in the catalogs of many songwriters who have enjoyed multiple global hits, including The Chainsmokers, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, Poo Bear, the late Chic co-founder Bernard Edwards, Johnta Austin and Sean Garrett. Its holdings now include more than 6,000 songs worth more than $1.3 billion, it told investors earlier this year, and its recent acquisitions have driven that number even higher.

Last month alone, Hipgnosis announced the acquisition of catalogs from hit songwriters Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, St. Vincent), Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Bruno Mars, Harry Styles), Savan Kotecha (Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, One Directon), Fraser T. Smith (Adele, Stormzy), Johnny McDaid (Ed Sheeran, Pink), the band Kaiser Chiefs and producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam).

Crescent Drive Productions was founded in 2019 by Jacobson, a longtime Universal Music Group executive and manager who most recently served as president of Geffen Records, and operates as an independent music management firm, publishing company and record label. CDP specializes in producer and songwriter management, while also focusing on the sales of high-profile publishing and producer catalogs.

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