One Media iP revenue and earnings rise as music industry sees growth

Music, video and copyright technology intellectual property rights company One Media iP reported a 16% improvement in revenue in its full-year results on Tuesday, to £2.7m.

The AIM-traded firm said its EBITDA increased 44% in the 12 months ended 31 October to £0.77m, while its operating profit rose 94% to £0.64m.

Cash as at year-end stood at £5.58m.

The board highlighted its fundraise of £8.9m gross before costs in equity and debt, which was set to be used to acquire music publishing rights, artist recordings and songwriters’ rights.

It also said it strengthened its board during the year, with the appointment of Lord Michael Grade and Ivan Dunleavy.

On the operational front, One Media iP said it was “another year of solid development” for its proprietary software, TCAT (Technical Copyright Analysis Tool), which signed its second major international record label client.

It saw “strong growth” across the group, driven by a resurgent music industry which saw its longest period of revenue growth since the 1990s, itself driven by increased consumer demand and dividends from streaming platforms.

Since year-end, the firm acquired the music catalogue of Locomotive Records for $0.75m, including a direct artist royalty agreement with Spanish folk metal band, ‘Mägo de Oz’.

On Tuesday, it also announced the acquisition of certain rights relating to the composition and writers share of the income in the Michael Dulaney catalogue of songs - an American country music songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee - for a total consideration of $0.85m, to be satisfied in cash.

“2018 demonstrated our determination to bring continued strong progress across the group, within the context of a resurgent music industry that is seeing on-going growth in streaming,” said One Media iP chief executive officer Michael Infante.

“We appointed Lord Michael Grade and Ivan Dunleavy to enhance the board and, subsequently, raised capital to scale up OMiP through the acquisition of music publishing rights and master rights.”

Infante noted that the company continued to operate a selective approach with its acquisition programme, with the post-period end acquisitions of the Locomotive music catalogue and certain rights relating to the composition and writers share of the income in the Michael Dulaney catalogue.

“Moving forward, we remain focused on acquiring IP content and maximising our digital music and video income via the growing global streaming stores such as Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, Facebook and Deezer.”