Producer royalties used to sit in the background of a record deal. This week they showed up as another asset class. HarbourView Equity Partners said on September 3, 2026 that it had bought David Kershenbaum’s interest in producer royalties and related rights on a run of masters he made — including Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” Financial terms were not disclosed.
The package is a short list of records that never really left the culture. Beside “Fast Car” sit Chapman’s “Baby Can I Hold You,” “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution,” “She’s Got Her Ticket” and “Crossroads”; Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out,” “Is She Really Going Out With Him” and “Breaking Us in Two”; Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis”; and Gallagher & Lyle’s “I Wanna Stay With You.” Kershenbaum produced Chapman’s 1988 debut (more than seven million copies, three Grammys) after a career that already included Jackson’s Night and Day and A&R work that helped bring Bryan Adams and Janet Jackson to A&M. Luke Combs’ 2023 “Fast Car” cover, which climbed to No. 2 on the Hot 100, put a new spotlight on the original and on the producer who cut it.
HarbourView is not new to this lane. The firm bought Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins’ producer income in May 2025, picked up selected assets from the Quincy Jones estate in March, and added a slice of Wolf Cousins publishing (Max Martin, Shellback and co-writers) in June. Founder Sherrese Clarke framed the Kershenbaum deal as stewardship of a catalog that still travels through streaming, film, TV and the road. The company is hovering near $4 billion in assets under management.
For songwriters and producers watching the bid stack, the message is familiar: hits from the physical era still throw off cash, and funds would rather own a slice of that cash than wait for the next radio cycle. Chapman’s publishing is not what changed hands here. The producer’s back-end did. That distinction is the whole market.