Blackstone Sells Recognition Music Rights to Sony for $200 Million

Blackstone, the owner of around $4 billion in music assets including through Recognition Music Group, has sold a portion of the Recognition portfolio to Sony Music Group for more than $200 million, according to sources.

The deal, which has not been previously reported, includes mostly publishing assets and a smattering of master recording royalty income streams to songs including some by Jeff Bhasker, like Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk and some performed by Taylor Swift; and some songs from Jack Antonoff, among other titles, sources say.

Blackstone has accumulated a substantial pool of music assets through the $1.6 billion acquisition of Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s catalog in April 2024, after having separately spent around $800 million on music assets since 2021 under a separate Hipgnosis company, Hipgnosis Songs Capital. All of those Hipgnosis music assets were rolled into the renamed Recognition Music Group, run by CEO Ben Katovsky. 

Recognition’s portfolio of 45,000 songs performed by artists including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Journey, Justin Bieber and Shakira secured more than $2.2 billion through two asset backed securitizations in 2024 and 2025.

Blackstone made its first foray into the music industry with the $1 billion acquisition of SESAC in January 2017, followed by the acquisition of eOne Music, renamed MNRK Music Group, for $385 million in June 2021. Those deals were done by Blackstone’s separate New York-based private equity investment group, while the firm’s tactical opportunities group based in London led the investments that became Recognition.

Blackstone’s London-based investment managers and its Recognition Music Group management team are said to be engaged in cleaning up that portfolio of music assets. In early 2025, it sold Hipgnosis Songs Group, the subsidiary that housed Big Deal Music and its administration business, to Sony Music Publishing in a deal where terms were not disclosed, but sources suggest it carried about a $70 million price tag. 

Besides the two deals with Sony, sources previously suggested that Recognition had been seeking a strategic partner for things like helping to manage its small pool of master recording assets and publishing administration when its arrangements with other administrators end. Sources say Sony could be in the running to fill that role.

Meanwhile, even though Recognition has sold off assets to Sony Music, sources say Blackstone is not trying to disinvest in music assets. However, those sources suggest that for the right price Blackstone would be a willing seller of any specific asset a suitor might target, if the giant equity firm is rewarded with a strong return on investment.

Blackstone and Sony Music declined to comment.