Musixmatch buys Music Reports, owner of Songdex and Blokur, in its first ever acquisition

Musixmatch has made the first acquisition in its roughly 16 year history, and it is a big one for the plumbing of music rights. The company announced on 19 October that it has bought Music Reports, the Los Angeles based business behind Songdex, a large registry used to identify who owns which songs. Financial terms were not disclosed. Tikehau Capital, which backed Musixmatch in 2024, provided the financing.

The deal brings more than Songdex. Music Reports also owns Blokur, the London rights matching platform it took over in early 2024, and Cuetrak, a tool studios, broadcasters and streaming services use to manage cue sheets. Music Reports itself had been owned by the private equity firm MidOcean Partners, which bought it from Abry Partners six years ago.

Musixmatch, led by founder and CEO Max Ciociola, describes the purchase as its biggest step towards becoming a full stack rights and royalties platform. The plan is to combine its own lyrics and music data with Songdex to build one metadata layer that connects recordings, compositions and the rights information behind them. Musixmatch also says Songdex will keep its independence and its impartial approach to identifying song ownership, a point that matters to the publishers and services that rely on it as a neutral source.

Why should a techno producer or a small label care about a registry deal in Los Angeles? Because unmatched data is where independent royalties go missing. When a streaming service or broadcaster cannot connect a recording to its composition and its owners, the money for that song often sits unclaimed or is paid out late. Every consolidation of registries and matching tools changes where that matching happens and who controls it.

The practical takeaway for artists and managers is unglamorous but useful. Make sure every release carries consistent writer names, ISRCs and ISWCs where you have them, that your publishing is registered with your collecting society, and that your distributor and publisher hold the same split information. Producers who self publish should check that their works are registered at all; many club tracks never are.

It is too early to say how the combined business will change fees, access or reporting for smaller rights holders. For now, the deal signals that the companies sitting between streaming platforms and songwriters are getting bigger, and that the quality of your own metadata is still the part you control.