A live performance from Daddy Yankee, who’s sold his catalog to Concord. Photo Credit: Chrishonduras
Earlier this week, DMN first reported on Concord’s over $217 million buyout of “a highly successful” Latin artist’s catalog. Now, the company has officially confirmed a deal with Daddy Yankee.
Concord reached out to Digital Music News today with a formal release about its Daddy Yankee IP agreement. Our earlier coverage stemmed from a KBRA breakdown of the business’s financials and holdings – including a recent $217.3 million play for the “catalog of assets by a highly successful Latin Music artist and songwriter.”
Notwithstanding the latter specification, KBRA didn’t come right out and identify the artist’s name. However, the rating agency did describe the appropriate act as one defendant in “a copyright infringement claim against several artists in the Latin Music genre.”
While what’s likely the claim in question is sweeping to say the least – we’ve broken down that reggaeton-theft action at length – we noted that the commercially prominent Daddy Yankee is one of the suit’s many defendants.
Shifting back to the present, Concord has eliminated all doubt by acknowledging the purchase of a stake in Daddy Yankee’s publishing catalog and masters, on top of “certain name, image, and likeness rights” to boot.
Though Concord opted not to disclose the exact ownership specifics, the Nashville-headquartered company specified that the pact “encompasses Daddy Yankee’s work from 2002 through 2019.” During the period, the Puerto Rican artist released five studio albums (beginning with 2002’s El Cangri.com) as well as a number of much-streamed non-album singles.
“Since he burst onto the scene,” added Concord CEO Bob Valentine, “Daddy Yankee has been at the forefront of not only reggaeton, but pop music generally.
“We were incredibly excited by this opportunity to work alongside Daddy Yankee to continue building on his remarkable legacy and significance. His real and lasting cultural impact is clear, and Concord is thrilled to be a part of his story,” the longtime exec concluded.
Looking ahead to the future, Concord intends to manage Daddy Yankee’s catalog out of its Miami office – with plans in place to keep on acquiring “important content in the Latin music space” moving forward.
Besides achieving ongoing growth across a number of quick-developing markets – Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina among them – Latin music is generating more recorded revenue than ever in the U.S., according to RIAA data.
