Better Noise Music confirms 50% sale of catalog to Raven Capital in 2022

10 May 2024 - Press release

BETTER NOISE MUSIC CONTINUES ITS ASCENT IN THE GLOBAL MUSIC INDUSTRY BY EXCITINGLY BUILDING ON ITS FORMIDABLE SUCCESS AND GEARING UP FOR ACQUISITIONS AND EXPANSION

THE LABEL ENDS APRIL 2024 WITH 4 OF THE TOP 15 TRACKS IN THE ACTIVE ROCK MEDIABASE RADIO CHART (FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH FT. DMX, NOTHING MORE, FROM ASHES TO NEW, AND ASKING ALEXANDRIA), AND HAD THE LONGEST DURATION #1 OF 2023 ALTERNATIVE RADIO CHART WITH DIRTY HEADS’ “RESCUE ME”

 

Premiere independent music label Better Noise Music is continuing its ascent in the global music industry by excitingly building on its formidable success and gearing up for acquisitions and expansion. Its roster includes such artists as Five Finger Death Punch, Asking Alexandria, Bad Wolves, Dirty Heads, Nothing More, The HU, From Ashes To New, Crossbone Skully, and Eva Under Fire.

It has now been revealed by Better Noise Music CEO Dan Waite and President Steve Kline that label Chairman Allen Kovac sold a portion of the 20-year-old catalog from the Better Noise label to RAVEN Capital in a “nine figure area” deal in 2022. With an NDA in place since 2022, rumors of the catalog sale have only recently come to light.

The partial Better Noise Music catalog sale of 50% of the BNM catalog included titles from Awolnation, Papa Roach, Escape The Fate, Buck Cherry, The Hu, Bad Wolves, Dirty Heads, Drowning Pool, Hellyeah, Nico Vega, Cold, and Attica Riots, amongst other deeper catalog albums from the labels 20-year-history.  The sold catalog albums will now be administered by Endurance Music Group.

In confirming the 50% sale, CEO Dan Waite says: “The sale of half of the Better Noise Music catalog in 2022 means that many of our ambitions for acquisition and expansion are now possible as Hard Rock and Alternative deals are ending at other labels, Better Noise Music is becoming the natural home for those acts that want major label results with indie label sensibilities and attention to detail. We have the deep pockets to spend on global marketing and promotion in both USA plus International that large acts expect.”

With rumours circulating about an entire sale of BNM, RAVEN Capital lifted the two-year NDA to confirm the 50% catalog acquisition happened in 2022. 

Label CFO Harris Masood points out that this sale “provides the funds to synergistically expand BNM global staff, acquire other labels and catalogues, whilst allowing BNM to keep all frontline artists, and the active frontline albums from our current artists, plus our recent catalog titles, so 50% of the catalog remains in house, a number that is growing each year with new releases.”

Better Noise Music’s dominance in the hard rock and alternative space has only grown since the catalog sale. As of April 222024, BNM had 4 of the top 15 tracks in the Active Rock Mediabase radio chart (Five Finger Death Punch ft DMX, Nothing More, From Ashes To New and Asking Alexandria), and BNM had the longest duration #1 of 2023 Alternative Radio Chart with Dirty Heads’ “Rescue Me.”

President/COO Steve Kline says “Better Noise Music has been the #1 Billboard Hard Rock imprint year on year, and the #1 Active Rock Radio label for five of the last six years. We are developing The Funeral Portrait and will break them like we did with Nothing More, Bad Wolves and From Ashes to New, and we continue to develop established acts like Asking Alexandria, giving them their first two number 1 hits of their long career. We have more new signings we are excited about to announce later in 2024.”

With BMM’s global staff, and with Kline on the advisory board to A2IM, and Waite on the Impala Management Board, AIM Digital Committee, and with Waite chairing the IMPALA Digital Committee, Kline and Waite are at the cutting edge of the DSP innovations, and BNM is currently out-selling and out-streaming the top 10 Active Rock chart, and has just given DMX his first #1 track ever as “This is the Way” by Five Finger Death Punch ft. DMX hit the top spot on Billboard’s Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart. 

Allen Kovac was advised in the transaction by Tim Mandelbaum and the law firm of Fox Rothschild and by RBC Bank, Royal Bank of Canada.