A more worrying problem for Mercuriadis may come from a souring regulatory environment for music streaming on either side of the Atlantic.
Last Friday Kevin Brennan, the Labour MP and culture committee member, brought a private member’s bill to Parliament in an attempt to rebalance the riches of music streaming towards artists.
The move comes after the committee heard complaints from songwriters and musicians, who have struggled to live off the fraction of a penny they earn from each stream of their work on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
Concerns of the group of MPs prompted the UK competition regulator to take the first steps towards regulator action by launching a market study into the dominance of major record labels.
Sigh.
The Brennan bill would increase the share of streaming royalties that go to songwriters and musicians. Hipgnosis owns the songwriting and performance royalties paid by streaming companies. How is a law that threatens to increase the company’s revenues a threat to the company?