Hipgnosis Acquires Jack Antonoff Catalog, Including Hits for Taylor Swift and Fun.

Merck Mercuriadis‘ music IP investment company Hipgnosis Songs has announced its third catalog acquisition in as many days. The year-and-a-half old firm said on Thursday it has snared a library of nearly 200 songs from prolific songwriter/producer Jack Antonoff, the Bleachers frontman who has collaborated with many of the biggest stars of pop music.

As part of the arrangement, Antonoff will maintain an interest in the catalog while working with Hipgnosis in the management of his songs. The co-owned and managed catalog comprises the worldwide publishing and writer share of performance income for 188 songs, including collaborations with Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Sara Bareilles and his old band Fun., among others.

Notably, the catalog includes Antonoff’s writing share for Hot 100 No. 1s including Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” and Fun.’s “We Are Young,” as well as the No. 2 hit “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” Swift’s duet with Zayn. It also includes platinum radio hits including Sara Bareilles’ “Brave,” Lorde’s “Green Light” and Rachael Platten’s “Stand By You.”

“It’s an honor to partner with the Hipgnosis Songs family,” said Antonoff. “Merck and his team have a great reverence for the craft of songwriting and have created a home where artistic integrity is at the forefront. We look forward to this new chapter.”

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Added Mercuriadis: “I consider Jack to be amongst the most elite creators of our time. The songs he has co-created with Fun, Taylor Swift, Lorde, St. Vincent and Lana Del Ray are sublime and the very best in pop music with integrity. It’s a great privilege to welcome Jack and Tyler into the Hipgnosis Songs family and we are very excited to be working together.”

Antonoff was represented by Tyler Childs at Forward Artist Management and Gillian Bar of Carroll Guido Groffman Cohen Bar & Karalian.

Earlier this week the firm announced acquisitions from Antonoff’s “We Are Young” co-writer Jeff Bhasker and British band Kaiser Chiefs. It also revealed that its total spending since launching in July 2018 has crossed the £500 million ($650 million) mark, with plans in place to invest a further £500 million on catalog acquisitions.