Apollo puts $1.25bn into the BMG arm holding bonds on a million songs

Apollo Global Management has put $1.25bn into BMG, and the structure of the deal matters more than the number. The investment went into a BMG subsidiary that holds Concord's legacy asset-backed securities, bonds secured against the royalty income of a catalogue of more than one million songs, and the cash lets BMG pay some of those bonds off.

The timing is tight. Apollo announced the transaction on Thursday 17 September, a little over two weeks after the BMG and Concord merger completed on 1 September, forming a combined company operating under the BMG name.

What Apollo gets is a minority position in that subsidiary rather than a stake in BMG itself. Apollo partner Jamshid Ehsani called the investment non-dilutive, which in practice means Bertelsmann's 67% ownership of BMG and the 33% held by affiliates of Great Mountain Partners are both untouched.

Concord has spent four years building the debt this unwinds. The company raised money by issuing bonds secured against the royalties its songs and recordings generate, and those obligations moved to the combined company when the merger closed. Its most recent sale, in July 2025, raised $1.765bn against a portfolio of music rights valued at more than $5.1bn, a transaction Apollo structured and syndicated.

The catalogue behind those bonds is not obscure. Concord rights include recordings and songs associated with the Beatles, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Kiss, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Daddy Yankee, Phil Collins, R.E.M. and the Rolling Stones.

Bob Valentine, BMG's chief executive, framed it as strengthening the financial foundation of a company that has just doubled in size. Bertelsmann had already disclosed the investment when it announced the merger's completion, putting the figure at roughly 1.1bn euros and saying the capital would let BMG refinance and repay outstanding BMG and Concord bond liabilities.

Apollo has been circling music for years. The firm says it has originated more than $8bn in music industry investments over the past five years, has backed Concord's bond programme since 2022 across more than $4.5bn of debt, provided a $700m capital solution to Sony Music Group in July 2024, and backed the 2021 launch of HarbourView Equity Partners. It also committed debt and minority equity to the vehicle that bid $1.51bn for Hipgnosis Songs Fund before Blackstone won that auction at $1.58bn.

The combined BMG now holds more than four million works, is headquartered in Nashville with Berlin as its European base, and is targeting revenues above $2.5bn at $1.2bn EBITDA in the midterm. Deutsche Bank and Latham & Watkins advised Apollo; Goldman Sachs, DLA Piper and Davis Polk advised BMG.

Our coverage of the merger that produced this balance sheet includes BMG and Concord completing their deal under Bob Valentine BMG reporting 8.1% organic revenue growth in the first half, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers selling their recordings to Warner.