Partners Group bought royalty backed notes to finance a joint venture that gives Lyric a 25% equity stake and allows The Weeknd "creative freedom" over publishing and master rights.
The Weeknd and Lyric Capital‘s deal to move the Starboy artist’s back catalog into a new joint venture was financed through royalty-backed notes bought by the Swiss-based investment firm Partners Group, according to a press release.
The Weeknd’s masters catalog and Lyric Capital raised $1 billion — including $750 million in debt — in a deal that gave Lyric a 25% equity stake in artist Abel Tesfaye‘s masters, Billboard reported earlier in December. Partners said on Wednesday that The Weeknd will maintain “freedom to utilize the publishing and masters’ rights over the catalog” in the new vehicle, which it financed through the purchase of royalty-backed notes bought with client funds from its cross-sector royalty strategy.
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While Partners Group did not disclose the total amount of notes it bought, the global investment firm that has historically focused on real estate, infrastructure and private equity assets launched a dedicated royalty investment strategy in 2024, which it says is targeting $30 billion in assets under management by 2033.
Partners’ evergreen fund structure acquires royalties across life sciences, energy transition and entertainment, of which entertainment and music royalties will likely comprise $6 billion to $9 billion in assets, the company has said. In January, Partners announced investments in the film and TV music catalog of Warner Bros’, which is managed by a joint venture with Cutting Edge Group, and in a royalty-backed note issued by film and TV music rights catalog company Multimedia Music.
“To be able to add The Weeknd, who is one of the most commercially successful contemporary artists of all time, to our portfolio … speaks to the underlying quality and reach of our strategy,” Stephen Otter, Head of Royalties, Partners Group, said in a statement.
Consistently ranked among the world’s most-streamed artists, The Weeknd’s catalog generates stable, growing revenue that is considered diversified because of its different fan groups spread around the globe. Buying exposure to that revenue through the royalty-backed notes gives Partners a low-risk, high upside potential way to be “aligned with the artist,” Otter says.
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Partners has previously invested in Lyric Capital, Sherrese Soares’ HarbourView Equity Partners and Josh Gruss’ Round Hill Music. Partners has invested more than $210 billion in private equity, private credit, real estate and infrastructure since its founding in 1996.
