Grammy-winning hitmaker Nile Rodgers and legendary manager Merck Mercuriadis join Simon and Brian onstage at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall during the 2019 Meltdown festival. The pair share insights into the art and business of songwriting through their work together on the Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, and Nile takes up his guitar to demonstrate how he wrote classic hits for artists like Sister Sledge, Diana Ross and David Bowie. Nile was also the guest for episode 123 of this podcast.

Merck Mercuriadis is Founder & CEO of UK-based Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which has acquired songs – or pieces of songs – that have fuelled hits like Rihanna's Umbrella, Al Green's Let's Stay Together, Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You, Beyoncé's Single Ladies, The Chainsmokers' Closer and many more. Hipgnosis floated on the London Stock Exchange in July 2018 and, according to Mercuriadis, as of April 2020, has spent over a billion dollars acquiring music catalogs.

How much is a song worth? Two people who should know are the Chic founder and his manager, who have started a company to buy some of the world’s most famous back catalogues. They explain how music investing works and why many songwriters are miffed with Spotify.

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If you manage Nile Rodgers, one of, if not the greatest songwriters of all time, do you really need an introduction by a wee podcast like ours? No, you probably don't, even less so when you've managed Elton John, Guns n' Roses and ran the management company that looked after actual Beyonce, to name but a few over a glittering career in the business. Much like his artist Nile, Merck Mercuriadis is a man of many talents, starting off in A&R, getting out and becoming wildly successful manager, while at the same time now entering the 'song management' game - something he fills us in on, along with some amazing insights, some utterly massive names and some great stories. 

As ever thanks to our podcast sponsors AWAL, one of the biggest innovators in the distribution space, empowering artists to reach new heights, while still owning all their rights, and our supporters the Music Managers Forum. 

Say hey @managethatpod on Instagram or Twitter, we'd love to know what you think, or even better, rate and review! Enjoy! 

Oh, and P.S. Ally went off on one about his love of Scottish act The Blue Nile, who Merck used to manage, but there was so so so much more in the episode we wanted to get in, that slightly gushy section was dropped, we'll maybe save that embarrassment for a bonus episode. Bless him.