The future of Naxos

[Mark Thomas]

A source well-connected to Naxos, whom I can't name, has told me that Hong Kong-based Naxos is now owned by the People's Republic of China, specifically Beijing-based Kuke Music Holding Ltd. One effect of this change is that Naxos are reviewing their release schedule to cut back on the number of new recordings issued each month, and apparently this has already impacted on the authorisation of new projects, including the continuation of established series. It's not good news.

[emi122]

it's an old news. naxos has been confirmed. that they have stopped to cooperation with kuke music.

[emi122]

don't believe it

[Mark Thomas]

Perhaps you could be more specific, please? I've every reason otherwise to believe what I was told. News reports indicate that Kuke paid over $100m to acquire a 70% interest in Naxos in September last year.

[eschiss1]

stopped to cooperation = stopped cooperating or stooped to cooperating? There is a small but significant difference between the two phrases.

[emi122]

stopped cooperating

[emi122]

kuke music has no connection with naxos now.

[Justin]

Mark, is your source referring to that press release by Kuke from last September and Naxos' subsequent reply, or is this something recent?

[John Boyer]

stopped to cooperation = stopped cooperating or stooped to cooperating? There is a small but significant difference between the two phrases.

Or perhaps "Stoops to Conquer", to give it a post-Restoration vibe.

[Mark Thomas]

My informant is a not a friend or regular contact, but someone who has worked for Naxos on many projects and had future plans with them, which now appear to be at risk. I trust them, otherwise I wouldn't have passed on the information.

Doing some online research, it appears that Kuke Music acquired a controlling interest in Naxos in September last year after a dispute between the two companies over licensing fees, which culminated in Naxos abrogating the agreement in August 2025. This presumably provoked Kuke's formal takeover, although it appears that there was already a good deal of common ownership between the two companies prior to that. In October the founder of Naxos, Klaus Heymann, "disputed the validity of the takeover", but since then there's been silence, and that was eight months ago. Naxos was unique amongst the "major" labels in still creating new content and it has an enormous and very valuable back catalogue, which no doubt would be a very tempting prospect for a new owner interested in exploiting it, in the way that big players like Universal is doing with Hyperion's. New recording projects were an immediate casualty of that deal.

[eschiss1]

Mr. Boyer- I was aiming for a parallel with? call-out to? that, it's true...

[John Boyer]

Mr. Boyer- I was aiming for a parallel with? call-out to? that, it's true...

No subtext or hidden message intended.  The discussion on the "stopped to cooperation / stooped to cooperate" wording just brought the title of Goldsmith's play to mind.

[Ilja]

It seems from Mark's report that things are still somewhat in swing; let's hope for a better outcome than a de facto shutdown of Naxos as an active label.

Things like these are the inevitable outcome of the fact that so many of these labels are, for all intents and purposes, one-man operations even if the organization is perhaps somewhat larger. This goes for BIS, Sterling, even Hyperion. For these (now elderly) people the company was also their retirement plan, so one can hardly blame them for selling. But it is rather a feeble basis for an industry. Thankfully this holds less true for CPO, and let's pray that Martin Anderson will hold out for a bit longer (although, as said, I'd quite understand if he wanted to retire).

What is also interesting is whether the sale of Naxos includes Chandos, which was acquired by Heymann in 2024.

Edit: reports seems to indicate that Chandos was purchased by Heymann personally rather than by Naxos, and that Ralph Couzens remains its head of operations. If so, that would be good news.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, Chandos is quite independent of Naxos, under Heymann's personal ownership and Couzens' continuing direction. I believe that Naxos will be taking over distribution, though.

[eschiss1]

let's hope that, while it's impossible to tell now, the near-future holds the beginning of some promising record labels covering range of repertoire with similar skill. (Recent Wikipedia categories "Record labels established in xxxx" aren't promising for classical music but why would I expect them to be?)