Big Machine Music Signed Cape Town’s Will Linley For Publishing In May 2025. When Scott Borchetta Reacquired The Big Machine Records Name In February 2026, The Publisher Stayed With HYBE America.

Deal sheet

Status

Announced 21 May 2025 as an exclusive publishing deal between Big Machine Music and Will Linley, the Cape Town-born singer-songwriter. Confirmed as a publishing, not a recording, agreement by two independent accounts: an industry rights-database item recording that Linley "signed with Big Machine Music for publishing" and naming This Fiction as management, Island Records as label and UTA/Wasserman Music as booking agents; and a trade report of the same date stating that the "Island Records singer-songwriter Will Linley has signed a publishing deal with Big Machine Music". A second archived trade item of 22 May 2025 describes it in its headline as an exclusive songwriting deal, with the body behind a paywall. Big Machine Music President Mike Molinar was quoted in the announcement: "Will's music is so joyful and addictive. Only one song into the first time I saw his live show, it was easy to understand why legions of fans from Cape Town to Los Angeles adore him." Senior Director Timmy Haehl was named alongside him. Linley's single "Cinematic" had been released five days earlier, on 16 May 2025; his prior catalogue includes the EPs "Kill All My Feelings" and "Magic".

What changed after the announcement is corporate, not contractual, and it is the reason this record exists. On 12 February 2026 Scott Borchetta departed HYBE America and, under the exit terms, reacquired the Big Machine Records brand name to relaunch for his own future ventures. HYBE America retained the BMLG assets, the distribution deal, the publishing company Big Machine Music, and a number of artists on the roster including Thomas Rhett, Brett Young, Midland, Justin Moore, Carly Pearce, Preston Cooper, Jackson Dean and Mae Estes. On 17 February 2026 the HYBE-run Nashville label operation was rebranded Blue Highway Records, effective immediately, with The Valory Music Co. folded into it; the same announcement confirmed that Big Machine Music remains under HYBE AMERICA and was not part of the rebrand. The counterparty on Linley's publishing deal therefore did not move. The label brand sharing its name did.

Type

Publishing

Parties

Big Machine Music, HYBE, Island Records

Amount

Not disclosed

Rights covered

Publishing and songwriting rights only. Both contemporaneous accounts of the 21 May 2025 announcement describe the agreement as a publishing deal, and the second archived item calls it an exclusive songwriting deal in its headline. No document located states which specific rights within publishing are covered, whether any share of copyright in the compositions was assigned or whether Big Machine Music holds an administration right only, what royalty split applies, or whether an advance was paid.

This deal does not touch master recordings. Will Linley's recordings are released by Island Records, a frontline record label owned by Universal Music Group and led out of New York by President Darcus Beese. That is a separate relationship with a separate company under a separate corporate parent, and no source located states whether Island Records owns his masters outright, holds them under exclusive licence, or distributes recordings owned elsewhere. Reporting on the publishing signing names Island Records as his label and says nothing further about the recording terms. This record does not resolve the masters question and does not assert an answer to it.

Territory

Not specified in the sourced reporting. No announcement, trade report or party statement located states a territory for the publishing agreement. Worldwide scope is the common default for a publishing signing of this kind, but it is a default, not a document, and it is not asserted here. Nor is it established whether Big Machine Music administers Linley's catalogue directly in every market or through a sub-publisher network in some of them: no source addresses the question. What is on the record is geographic only in the loosest sense: the publisher is Nashville-based, the songwriter is Cape Town-born, and the Molinar quote in the announcement refers to fans "from Cape Town to Los Angeles".

Announced

2025-05-21

Primary document

Trade press

Sources

Industry trade item, 21 May 2025 · Archived trade report, Will Linley signing, 21 May 2025, read in full 26 September 2026, carrying the Mike Molinar quote verbatim, naming Senior Director Timmy Haehl, and describing Linley as an Island Records singer-songwriter · Archived trade item, headline confirmation of an exclusive songwriting deal, 22 May 2025, body paywalled · Trade report, Borchetta exit and Big Machine Music retention, 13 February 2026, read in full, carrying the Isaac Lee and Scott Borchetta statements verbatim and the full list of retained artists · Trade report, Borchetta exit terms and Big Machine Records brand relaunch, 12 February 2026 · Trade report, BMLG rebrand terms, 13 February 2026 · Trade report, Blue Highway Records launch and confirmation that Big Machine Music remains under HYBE AMERICA, 17 February 2026, also giving the 2019 Ithaca Holdings acquisition of BMLG and HYBE's $1.05 billion acquisition of Ithaca in 2021 · Label ownership reference, read 26 September 2026, stating that Island Records is a frontline record label owned by Universal Music Group, led out of New York by President Darcus Beese

Read this before citing: NO CONSIDERATION WAS DISCLOSED. No advance, royalty rate, percentage split, guaranteed minimum or equity component appears in any source located for this agreement. "Not disclosed" is the accurate entry for the amount, not a placeholder for a figure this desk failed to find. No party has published the agreement and this desk has not read it.

NO TERRITORY AND NO TERM WERE DISCLOSED. The sourced reporting states neither the territory the publishing agreement covers nor its length in years, and states nothing about option periods or reversion. A publishing deal announced without a term is the norm in trade coverage; it still means the term is unknown here.

PUBLISHING IS NOT MASTERS, AND THE TWO SIDES SIT UNDER DIFFERENT OWNERS. Big Machine Music, under HYBE America, holds the publishing side. Island Records, owned by Universal Music Group, is the label that releases the recordings. Conflating those is the most common error in coverage of a signing like this one. This record asserts nothing about what Island Records holds in Linley's recordings, because no document located says.

WHETHER ADMINISTRATION IS DIRECT OR VIA SUB-PUBLISHERS IS UNKNOWN. No source states whether Big Machine Music administers Linley's compositions itself in all markets or licenses administration onward to sub-publishers in some. No PRO or collecting-society works registration for his catalogue was searched for this record, so no registered publisher share is asserted.

THE FEBRUARY 2026 OWNERSHIP CHANGE MOVED A NAME, NOT THIS PUBLISHER. On 12 February 2026 Scott Borchetta departed HYBE America and reacquired the Big Machine Records brand name for his own future ventures. HYBE America retained the BMLG assets, the distribution deal and the publishing company Big Machine Music, which is the counterparty on Linley's deal. On 17 February 2026 the HYBE-run Nashville label operation rebranded as Blue Highway Records, with The Valory Music Co. folded into it, and Big Machine Music was confirmed to remain under HYBE AMERICA. No consideration for Borchetta's reacquisition of the brand name was disclosed in any source reviewed, and this desk asserts no figure and no mechanism for it. Because two businesses under different owners now carry the Big Machine name, any future reference to a "Big Machine" deal needs to specify which company is meant.

OWNERSHIP CHAIN BEHIND THE PUBLISHER. Big Machine Label Group was acquired by Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in 2019. The entirety of Ithaca Holdings, including BMLG and Braun's SB Projects, was then acquired by South Korea's HYBE in a $1.05 billion deal in 2021. That figure is the one disclosed for the Ithaca transaction and is not a value for anything in this record.

EXECUTIVE TITLES COME FROM TRADE REPORTING, NOT A PRIMARY RELEASE. Isaac Lee's title as Chairman and CEO of HYBE AMERICA, and Jake Basden's appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Blue Highway Records, were read in trade coverage of the February 2026 announcements. No primary HYBE or BMLG newsroom release on either was fetched from this server. Mike Molinar's and Timmy Haehl's titles likewise come from trade coverage of the May 2025 signing announcement.

ONE DATING DIVERGENCE IN THE BACKGROUND MATERIAL. The industry rights-database item dates "miss me (when you're gone)" to 2021 and credits it with over 15 million streams and a South African radio chart-topping run. The trade report of the signing dates Linley's breakout to "Last Call" going viral in 2022 and describes "miss me (when you're gone)" as a South African radio chart-topper without giving a year. The two accounts emphasise different songs rather than contradicting each other, but no single source establishes both the release year and the streaming figure, so neither is presented here as a settled fact about the same track.