What the biggest music industry deals of 2025 lacked in star power, they made up for in sheer size: The top five transactions announced in the first half of the year include three items over $1 billion, with the smallest coming in at $450 million. Notably, the list doesn’t include the starriest deal of the year so far: Taylor Swift’s purchase of her Big Machine master recordings. Swift’s reclamation of her first six albums attracted more media attention than any other music business deal so far this year, but with a smaller price tag than the top five, it’s left to vie for a spot on the year-ending top 10 (or more) list. 
 
Last year, music companies made numerous noteworthy acquisitions, including Sony Music’s purchase of Queen’s catalog for $1.27 billion; Universal Music Group’s deals for [PIAS] and Downtown Music Holdings (which hasn’t closed and is being reviewed by the European Commission); Blackstone’s $1.6-billion acquisition of Hipgnosis Songs Fund; and New Mountain Capital’s purchase of BMI for between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion. The live sector was also active, with Legends picking up ASM Global from AEG for $2.3 billion and KKR buying Superstruct for $1.39 billion.  
 
Lacking super-sized catalog acquisitions, Billboard’s list of the largest deals announced in the first half of 2025 is instead dominated by fundraising to enable the purchase of music rights. Two of the five deals involve asset-backed securities (ABSs), a type of debt that allows an owner of large, diversified music catalogs to finance its borrowings with royalties from its catalogs and which has become increasingly common in the music business. Several companies have raised money through ABSs since 2022, including Concord, Kobalt, Hipgnosis Song Management, HarbourView Equity Partners, Chord Music Partners and Influence Media. 
 
Other than Swift’s purchase of her masters, there were numerous other noteworthy catalog deals that fell short of making the top five. Sony Music Publishing acquired Hipgnosis Songs Group for an undisclosed amount that Billboard nonetheless believes is safely below the threshold to make this list. And in March, Create Music Group acquired the catalogs of deadmau5 and his label, mau5trap, followed in April by its purchase of indie electronic label !K7.  
 
Check out the top five deals from the first half of 2025 below.