Reservoir acquires rights to "Feliz Navidad" songwriter-performer José Feliciano's catalog. Reservoir Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: RSVR), an award-winning independent music company, today announced a new deal to acquire rights to the recorded music catalog of "Feliz Navidad" songwriter-performer José Feliciano. The deal also includes non-exclusive rights to his name, image, and likeness. Feliciano is a Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, and songwriter with a career spanning more than six decades. Born in Lares, Puerto Rico and raised in New York City's Spanish Harlem, Feliciano is recognized as the first Latin artists to cross over into mainstream Anglo-American pop. He was born blind and taught himself guitar as a child, going on to perform as a teenager in Greenwich Village. By 1964, Feliciano signed with RCA Victor, and in 1968 he released a recording of The Doors' "Light My Fire" that made him an international star and earned him Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Performance, Male. That same year, his soulful rendition of the national anthem at the World Series changed how future artists could interpret and perform the song. Just two years later, Feliciano wrote and recorded "Feliz Navidad," which has become one of the most-played holiday songs in the world. The original recording, which returns to the charts each holiday season and recently reached #6 on the Hot 100, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010 and, just this year, was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its "cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation's recorded sound heritage." Feliciano is also known for writing and performing the theme to the TV series Chico and the Man, as well as other self-penned works including "Rain," "Affirmation," and "Let's Find Each Other Tonight" (performed in his 1996 cameo in the film Fargo). As a sought-after collaborator, Feliciano featured on recordings by John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, and Bill Withers, and later recorded a high-profile jazz and R&B album, As You See Me Now, with Jools Holland in 2017. Across his prolific career, Feliciano released 60+ albums, and his honors include multiple Grammy Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1987), a Smithsonian National Museum of American History tribute preserving key career artifacts, and the National Medal of Arts (2021). Feliciano continues to record and tour worldwide. Feliciano commented on the deal, "I'm excited to be in partnership with the talented Reservoir Team, ensuring the enjoyment of my music for generations to come." Reservoir Executive Vice President, Global Creative Director Donna Caseine added, "José Feliciano's incredible gift extends far beyond the accomplished hit 'Feliz Navidad.' His catalog is extensive, with countless bilingual recordings that helped popularize Latin music with a global audience. José's legacy is a credit to the high-quality, popular music he has written and shared with the world for over half a century, and it's an honor to champion José and his body of work at Reservoir." Reservoir Founder and Chief Executive Officer Golnar Khosrowshahi also commented, "This year, our Reservoir team has focused concertedly on expanding our portfolio of Latin music, and bringing José's music to Reservoir is an important continuation of those efforts. His countless accolades showcase just how much impact his catalog has had on Latin and popular music, and we look forward to continuing to support such influential music." Feliciano was represented in the deal by Denny Marte (Broker at MPA Advisors), Jay Stollman (Jay Stollman Entertainment), and Brett Green, Esq.

Coolio's "gangsta's Paradise" 30th Anniversary campaign wins 2026 Davey Award. Reservoir/Tommy Boy Music took home a Gold Integrated Campaign-Arts & Entertainment Davey Award for the Coolio 30th Anniversary campaign. The Davey Awards is a premier international creative awards focused exclusively on honoring outstanding work from small agencies, independent creators and in-house teams. This win follows the campaign's Award of Excellence at the 2026 Communicator Awards and its 2026 Webby nomination earlier this year. Tommy Boy Music supported the anniversary with marketing efforts including influencer campaigns, contests, radio spotlights, four Dolby Atmos tracks, and a 7" vinyl of "Gangsta's Paradise" along with an Instrumental. Tommy Boy partnered with Beatsource/Beatport on a social media challenge for the song, where DJs and creators shared their best mixes of the iconic track using a branded hashtag. The grand prize winner received a Rane One MKII DJ Controller, a pair of UE Pro 11 Earphones, a copy of Coolio's Greatest Hits vinyl, and a year's subscription to both Beatsource Pro and DJcity. Second and third place winners received $500 and Coolio Greatest Hits vinyl. Other marketing looks included takeovers on Music Choice, Touchtunes Jukeboxes, Spotify and a Vevo Footnotes with "Gangsta's Paradise" producer Doug Rasheed. Four Dolby Atmos tracks from the Greatest Hits collection, including "Gangsta's Paradise" feat. L.V., "1,2,3,4 (Sumpin' New)," "C U When U Get There" feat. 40 Thevz and "County Line," were also released on Apple Music and other streaming services. The song, which features R&B singer L.V., was originally released in 1995 and became a global success, topping charts in over 15 countries and winning the 1996 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. The song went on to be certified 3x-Platinum by the RIAA, establishing Coolio as a global hip-hop ambassador when the genre was still gaining mainstream acceptance internationally. Today, "Gangsta's Paradise" boasts at nearly 2.5 billion streams on Spotify alone, while the music video, which stars Michelle Pfeiffer and features scenes from the movie Dangerous Minds, is topping at 1.9 billion views on YouTube. The song continually sits on the Billboard Global 200 US and Ex-US charts, and in 2021, it was among Billboard's 100 Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs.

Reservoir's filing shows publishing-led growth and active catalog buying. October 8, 2026 The company's fiscal 2026 results point to a publishing-first model that is still deploying capital into catalogs, rights, and administration-heavy growth. Publishing remains the center of Reservoir's growth story. Reservoir's latest SEC filing is useful less as a headline earnings release than as a map of how an independent publisher is trying to grow in a higher-rate market. The company reported fiscal 2026 revenue of $175.7 million, up 11% year over year, with music publishing revenue rising 9% to $116.8 million. Recorded music also grew, but publishing still supplied the clearest signal about the business model Reservoir is building around. That matters because the filing shows the company is not relying on one royalty stream to carry results. According to the verified research brief, publishing growth came from digital publishing revenue up 7%, performance revenue up 14%, synchronization up 5%, and mechanical revenue up 9%. For music publishers, that mix is important: it suggests the catalog is monetizing across multiple channels rather than depending on a single licensing or streaming tailwind. Catalog appetite is still there, but the filing stresses discipline. The same filing also shows Reservoir is still using capital to expand its rights base. The verified research brief cites activity around the Miles Davis catalog and rights, the Viral Wave acquisition, the launch of PopIndia, and the acquisition of the Musicraft Entertainment catalog. That is a meaningful list for an independent publisher because it shows the company is not just collecting royalties from existing assets; it is still buying and building. At the same time, the balance sheet makes clear that this is not a free-spending environment. As of March 31, 2026, Reservoir had $25.9 million in cash, $91.2 million available under its revolving credit facility, and $117.1 million in total available liquidity, against total debt of $455.7 million and net debt of $429.8 million. In a higher-rate setting, that leverage profile helps explain why the company's filing emphasizes "disciplined capital deployment" and a "robust deal pipeline" rather than aggressive acquisition language. Why the financing backdrop matters to publishers. For music publishing executives and investors, the key takeaway is that Reservoir appears to be growing through a combination of royalty diversification and selective catalog acquisition, not through a single large transaction. The filing says management viewed fiscal 2026 as a year of "strong execution and substantial capital deployment," while also noting that higher interest expense affected net income. That is the tradeoff for acquisition-led growth when debt is part of the funding structure: the catalog base can expand, but financing costs can pressure the bottom line. The quarterly detail in the brief reinforces that point. Reservoir said fourth-quarter OIBDA margin in publishing declined because of higher administrative costs, including professional fees tied to the Viral Wave acquisition. That suggests the company is willing to accept near-term margin compression if it expands scale, rights ownership, or administrative reach. For independent publishers, that is a familiar strategic choice: pay now for catalog and infrastructure, then try to recover value over a longer royalty cycle. The deal flow points to future rights accumulation. Reservoir's recent publishing deal with country songwriter Justin Dukes fits the same pattern, even though the company's own announcement is artist-facing. The deal was described as Dukes' first publishing deal and covers both his catalog and future works. In business terms, that is exactly the kind of rights accumulation that supports a publishing-led strategy: securing existing works while also participating in future songwriting income. Read together, the filing and the deal activity show a company still leaning into the economics of independent publishing. Reservoir is signaling that it wants more catalog, more future works, and more participation across performance, mechanical, digital, and sync revenue streams. The constraint is capital cost, which means the next phase of growth will likely depend on how well the company can keep buying rights without letting leverage and interest expense outrun the returns those rights generate. Get Radio Facts Media in your inbox Industry news and coverage, twice weekly. No spam. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.