Kilometre Music Group Acquires Half of Belly's Catalogue

By FYI Staff

Recently formed Canadian music rights management company, Kilometre Music Group, in partnership with Barometer Capital Management Inc., announced today (June 10) that they have acquired 50% of the rights to Canadian songwriter Belly’s (Ahmad Balshe) song catalogue of 180 songs.

The Grammy and Oscar nominated and Juno-winning songwriter is one of the most successful songwriters of the modern era, having co-written many of The Weeknd’s biggest hits, including The Hills, Earned It, Save Your Tears, In Your Eyes, and Blinding Lights. Belly also co-wrote Beyoncé’s Six Inch, from her acclaimed album Lemonade, and he also co-wrote and was featured on the late Nipsey Hustle’s Double Up. 

The XO and Roc Nation artist has had a successful run as a solo artist with hits including Might Not, What You Want, and Maintain, and he has a new album, See You Next Wednesday, coming soon.

Kilometre President of A&R and Acquisitions Rodney Murphy stated in a press release, “Belly is essentially a double threat as very few artist/songwriters have had the success that he has achieved over the course of his fifteen-year career. From his edgy and poetic verses as a rapper to co-writing music’s biggest hits that are shaping the sound of popular music today, Belly will go down in history as one of Canada’s greatest songwriters”.

The record-breaking numbers that his songs have achieved are impressive. The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights is the first song to remain in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for an entire year and is currently the 2nd most streamed song on Spotify of all time. Last week, the hit was named Single of the Year at the Juno Awards. Belly also recently had the Billboard #1 song with The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s remix of Save Your Tears. In 2016 Belly was named the first-ever SOCAN Songwriter of the Year, and among many other highlights for him that year, The Hills stayed at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six weeks in a row.

“When we started Kilometre, our mission was to build a world-class portfolio of iconic songs from the multi-decade worldwide Canadian music invasion. Needless to say, Belly and his incredible songs were at the top of our list. We are ecstatic that Belly has trusted us with his historic catalogue that will stand the test of time," said Kilometre CEO Michael McCarty.

Belly in turn stated, “I am thrilled to officially partner with Kilometre, a company who has believed in my vision from the start and in whose leadership I have deep-rooted history and strong mutual trust."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.                                                                                           

Read an FYI interview with Michael McCarty on Kilometre Music Group here.