Armin van Buuren's Armada Music set to spend $100 million to acquire dance catalogs

Founded in 2003 by Armin van Buuren alongside Maykel Piron and David Lewis, Armada Music has grown to the forefront of dance and trance music culture with its high-quality releases and a strong stable of talented producers.  Now the label is looking to further impact the dance music world by acquiring a plethora of back catalogs through a sizeable investment.

The new venture, called BEAT, or “Best Ever Acquired Tracks,” will begin with a $100 million mission of “acquiring and exploiting recording and music publishing catalogs.”  The initial plan is backed by U.S.-based Pinnacle Financial Partners and is expected to extend over a two-year period during the initial phase of the program with plans to surpass the $500 million threshold in the future.  Getting started, the group take control of KMS Records’ master recordings catalog, as well as of the master and publishing catalog of DJ and producer Arty, also known as Alpha 9.  Armada Music is already considered the largest independent dance label in the world, and this new strategy comes as the dance music industry is expected to grow to $9.7 billion in 2023.

Speaking about the future plans for BEAT, Maykel Piron described it as:

“an artist-friendly vehicle to unlock value from recordings and copyrights within the dance arena after being pursued by numerous investors as part of the rapidly growing appetite for music catalogs.” 

As one of the leaders of dance music and culture, Armada Music certainly knows and respects both the past and present of the music scene and certainly seems excited to represent Kevin Saunderson and the KMS Recording catalog and get the chance to breathe new life into the past techno hits.  Piron talked further about the opportunity and responsibility that will come with this new venture and the music that will be acquired:

“It’s a privilege to be working with the tracks that sparked my passion for dance music at an early age. That passion is still there, and it’s incredibly rewarding to bolster the legacy of major dance hits.” He added: “We’re super excited to bring in more incredible labels, artists and songs to boost and complement our current catalog of 40,000 tracks.”

Image Credit: SNDR / Provided by Armada PR