Koala will remain from Sony Music – Newspaper Kommersant No. 166 (7367) of 09/09/2022

The management of the Russian catalog of Sony Music, which left Russia, will be transferred to Kiss Koala LLC, which belongs to the former top managers of the Russian division of the group Arina Dmitrieva and Dmitry Kozik, Kommersant found out. The company will monetize the music of Russian artists signed by Sony. But the group withdraws catalogs of foreign artists, including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley and others, from Yandex.Music, Sound and VK Music. According to experts, the possibilities of the new company will depend on the sources of funding, which Sony had “almost unlimited”, and access to a content distribution platform.

Sony Music Group transferred the management of the Russian division to its CEO Arina Dmitrieva and Dmitry Kozik, follows from SPARK-Interfax data. Since September 7, the legal entity of the division has been renamed from Sony Music Entertainment LLC to Kiss Koala LLC. It used to be controlled by SBME Holdings BV, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. On August 24, 70% of the LLC was transferred to Arina Dmitrieva, 30% to Dmitry Kozik. It will operate under the Kiss Koala brand, says a Kommersant source on the market. Arina Dmitrieva declined to comment, it was not possible to contact Mr. Kozik.

Sony Music Group itself officially announced on September 8 that it was finally leaving Russia. In the spring, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the group spoke only of a suspension, the catalogs were in effect.

In a new statement that cites Billboardit is specified that the company, which will take over the management of the Russian label Sony, “will represent only local artists.”

Sony Music will withdraw foreign catalogs from Russian streaming services (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, etc.).

In Yandex.Music, Sound and VK Music, Kommersant confirmed that they had received a notification from Sony, refusing to comment further. Interlocutors of Kommersant believe that the catalogs may become inaccessible to Russians in foreign services, including Apple Music and YouTube Music (as of September 8, songs by Sony artists were available on all services).

Kommersant’s interlocutor in the market estimates Sony Music’s share in music distribution in Russia at 15-20%, but believes that the share of the new company may decrease. “The company will be able to serve only the remaining Russian catalog, but under a new brand and monetize those Russian artists that it has left (Denis Matsuev, Sergey Lazarev, Yulia Parshuta, Slava KPSS and others.— “b”),” he says.

At world majors in Russia were almost unlimited opportunities to buy new music catalogs, says another source, “the prospects for the new company will depend on funding sources, which are currently unknown.” If the company does not have access to Sony’s technical content distribution platform, it will have to turn to Believe, ONErpm or Zvonko Group for an analogue, the source believes, “for artists, the advantage of cooperation with Sony was the possibility of distribution through its platform as well.”

The head of ONErpm Eastern Europe, Nadezhda Boychevski, however, believes that the structure of the former Sony Music in Russia will still be able to deliver artists to foreign streaming sites – “there are no restrictions for this, except for technical ones, which, of course, can be overcome with Sony resources.” But Nadezhda Boychevsky admits that Sony’s Russian clients will begin to be redistributed among other distributors – “naturally, artists may decide to terminate cooperation with one legal entity and revise the terms in favor of others.”

Valeria Lebedeva, Yulia Tishina