Wise Music Sells Education Division to Private Equity Achieve Partners, Plans to Focus on ‘Core Mission of Music Publishing’

Wise Music Group has sold its education division to Achieve Partners. Photo Credit: Soundtrap

It turns out private equities’ music industry interest also extends to the learning side, as Achieve Partners has officially purchased Wise Music Group’s digital education division.

New York City-based Achieve Partners formally revealed that buyout today. At the top level, the private equity says it’s striving “to close America’s skills gap and secure the future of work.”

And within this broad operational framework, Achieve is also working “to build a comprehensive education software platform for performing and visual arts.” Enter the agreement with Wise Music, which is specifically parting with its MusicFirst, Charanga, Rising Software, Focus on Sound, and O-Generator assets.

As noted, each of those units specializes in music learning in one form or another. Just for a bit of additional context, though, MusicFirst creates various educational resources for use in the classroom. And Charanga’s similar music-lessons platform is said to be used by north of 70,000 teachers.

Meanwhile, Rising touts itself as today’s “most powerful ear training & music theory software,” with Focus on Sound specializing in “multimedia learning materials” as O-Generator zeroes in on composition, per the appropriate websites.

Of course, time will reveal Achieve Partners’ long-term plans for the holdings amid the above-described push to develop a comprehensive educational offering. Closer to the present, however, the private equity intends to keep on “accelerating the development of all five brands.”

That refers to “expanding their reach in ways that advance the role of technology in education while also prioritizing the unique needs of the music education community,” per the purchaser.

As for Wise Music, execs painted the selloff as a long-expected move designed to simplify operations and allow for a focus solely on publishing.

“This milestone represents the culmination of years of strategic transformation for Wise Music Group,” weighed in CEO Tomas Wise. “By entrusting our education businesses to Achieve Partners, we are confident that these brands will flourish under their stewardship.

“At the same time, we can now fully dedicate ourselves to our core mission of music publishing, reinforcing our position as a leading independent in the industry,” concluded the longtime Wise Music head, whose company is said to own or control over 500,000 copyrights.

Achieve isn’t alone in pursuing results in the music education space, with Conduction and Moombix having pulled down related raises during the final few months of 2024. Also during 2024, Billie Eilish partnered with Helsinki-headquartered Yousician, and Sony Music made more than 60 tracks available in Duolingo music lessons.

Link to the source article – https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/01/09/wise-music-education-achieve-partners-deal/

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