Beggars Group music boss Martin Mills bags £8m payday
The music mogul behind record company Beggars Group bagged an £8m dividend last year as his firm cashed in the sale of its stake in Spotify.
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Martin Mills, who founded Beggars in 1977, secured the sum after a strong year of trading for the company, which posted a 30 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £12m last year.
Beggars controls XL Recordings, the record label behind artists including Adele, Radiohead and Vampire Weekend. The group also owns half of Young Turks, which counts The xx and FKA Twigs among its artists.
The figures were boosted by the sale of the firm’s stake in Spotify following the Swedish streaming giant’s initial public offering last year.
Company accounts revealed Beggars paid out 44 per cent of the proceeds from the sale – thought to be in the region of $100m (£81m) – to its artists.
While Beggars welcomed a strong year of trading, boosted by growth in streaming, the firm warned a no-deal Brexit could have a serious impact on its business due to its reliance on revenue from the EU.
“However we are not and have never been just about the money,” the company said. “We are gravely concerned that a longer term negative political climate, if we leave the EU, would do irreparable political, social and economic damage by association to our sector’s soft power.”
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Mills’s music empire spawned from a record shop in Earls Court, which he opened in 1973. He has since grown Beggars into one of the most successful independent record companies and has garnered credit as one of the early advocates of streaming services.
Main image credit: Getty