Photo Credit: Giorgio Trovato
Primary Wave’s dealmaking streak definitely isn’t finished: Following several high-profile 2026 plays – chief among them the acquisition of Kobalt – the publisher has announced the “final closing” of its over $2.2 billion fourth fund.
Brookfield Asset Management-partnered Primary Wave confirmed the sizable tranche, specifically consisting of $2.225 billion in commitments, today. That sum, the business pointed out, is substantially larger than the fund’s initial $1.5 billion target and $2 billion “hard cap.”
Now, with insurance companies, pension funds, endowments, and family offices having kicked in capital, Primary Wave intends to keep the catalog-acquisition and -monetization momentum going.
Since March alone, the RUN and Pops Music stakeholder has taken interests in the work of “Cat’s in the Cradle” singer-songwriter Harry Chapin and “Santa Baby” singer Eartha Kitt, to name a couple. Furthermore, Primary Wave’s fourth fund has plenty of financial firepower in reserve; thus far, approximately $700 million has been deployed on north of 65 single-artist catalogs, per higher-ups.
Addressing the multibillion-dollar fund, Primary Wave founder and CEO Larry Mestel stated: “This fundraise validates both the platform we have built at Primary Wave and our conviction that an active, aggressive hands-on approach to marketing music is what drives superior long-term returns for our investors and growth in value to our artists.”
And Craig Noble, who heads Brookfield’s credit unit, touted Primary Wave’s “category-defining platform in music IP.”
“Primary Wave has built a category-defining platform in music IP, with a clear track record of sourcing, scaling, and enhancing high-quality assets,” the longtime Brookfield exec communicated.
“The success of this fundraise reflects both the strength of their strategy and the growing role of music royalties within institutional portfolios. We are excited about our long-term partnership with the company,” Noble concluded.
As some will recall, said long-term partnership initiated with a $1.7 billion investment (on top of the sale of “a significant minority interest in Primary Wave”) back in October 2022. Upon unveiling the tie-up, Primary Wave also revealed that it’d sold a minority stake to CAA.
Subsequently, CAA found a new owner in the Pinault family’s Artémis investment company, which possesses, among a whole lot else, a roughly 4% piece of Deezer. Though this information isn’t revelatory, the Artémis-powered connection between Primary Wave, CAA, Deezer, Puma, Gucci, and much more is seldom discussed.
Back to the ever-active song-rights sub-sector, Primary Wave’s over $2.2 billion fundraise means that total year-to-date music IP commitments have blown past the $6 billion mark.
The majority of the sum is tied to Primary Wave’s fourth fund as well as Sony Music’s and GIC’s at least $2 billion partnership. And while most of the capital is presumably destined to bankroll IP purchases, multiple buyers have rather shrewdly left the door open to spearheading deals outside the red-hot catalog arena.
