Good morning, creators. ☀️ Welcome to Day 9 of the Toys and Beats Morning Report — your daily briefing on music licensing, brand licensing, and the moves shaping pop culture. Four signals worth watching today, and every one of them connects back to the machine we're building: music + toys + the creators who bring them together. Let's get into it.
1. Peppa Pig kicks off a multiyear licensing program with England football
What happened: Hasbro and the Football Association announced a multiyear collaboration bringing Peppa Pig into the world of England national football for the first time. Launching in summer 2027, the program unites two beloved British brands through original content, consumer products, retail, and publishing. England football icon Jill Scott joins the Peppa Pig universe, voicing a brand-new character, Libby Lioness, in original content designed to introduce football to preschool audiences. The content slate includes a two-part Peppa Pig broadcast special, dedicated Peppa Pig Tales episodes on YouTube, and branded digital content — with a consumer products program spanning toys, plush, sporting accessories, apparel, and accessories (Source: The Licensing Letter).
Why it matters: This is a screen-to-shelf franchise build done right — content, products, retail, and publishing all firing together, with licensing partners invited into one of the most ambitious Peppa Pig collaborations to date. When a preschool character gets wired into national sports fandom, the toy aisle gets a whole new lane.
The ETS/Zillion angle: This is exactly the model we run every week: story first, then the physical products, then the partners. Epic Toy Sound owns its catalog, masters, publishing, and storefront — and platforms 250+ global collaborators pairing original music with toy photography and collectibles. Hasbro and the FA are building a multi-year screen-to-shelf machine; we're running one daily on toysandbeats.com and Zillion Marketplace. The world keeps proving the lane.
2. NetEase Cloud Music and gamma. sign multi-year partnership for China
What happened: NetEase Cloud Music and gamma. announced a multi-year strategic partnership making NetEase Cloud Music a key launch platform for licensed recordings from gamma.'s global artist roster — including Ye, Mariah Carey, Sexyy Red, Usher, and Snoop Dogg. Beyond distribution, the deal opens collaboration across artist promotion, cultural exchange, original music content, and other initiatives connecting global artists with Chinese audiences. NetEase Cloud Music reports over 200 million monthly active users and more than 1.25 million independent musicians on its platform (Source: PRNewswire).
Why it matters: The next wave of music growth is global-by-design: licensed partnerships that open entire markets at once, with the platform treating each release like its own launch. For independent catalogs, the lesson is that reach is a licensing decision — not just a distribution one.
The ETS/Zillion angle: We built the whole machine on this principle: own the masters, own the publishing, then license strategically into every territory and format instead of renting reach one post at a time. With TuneRegistry feeding collection across agencies and DistroKid pushing every release into the global social-music libraries, Epic Toy Sound is already playing the same game gamma. is playing — just at creator speed, one toy-photography collab at a time. Watch how licensing-first thinking compounds.
3. Sia sells a 50% stake in her publishing and master catalog to Pophouse for $180M
What happened: Sia has sold a 50% stake in her publishing and master music catalog to Sweden-based entertainment and music investment firm Pophouse in a deal valued at $180 million. The transaction covers iconic hits including "Chandelier," "Titanium," and "Cheap Thrills," alongside future creative projects, financed through Pophouse Fund I (over €1.2 billion in total capital). Notably, the deal does not include Sia's name, image, or likeness rights — and it's already being connected to plans for an immersive digital performance built around her music and vocals (Source: Hypebeast; analysis via Greay Magazine).
Why it matters: This is the catalog market maturing in real time: songs aren't just royalty streams anymore, they're the raw material for entirely new entertainment properties — immersive shows, experiences, and worlds. The $180M price implies a ~$360M full-catalog valuation, and it shows buyers paying for what the catalog can become, not just what it earned.
The ETS/Zillion angle: Catalogs with real worlds attached are the future — and ours comes with a visual universe built in. Every Epic Toy Sound track is tied to toy photography, cover art, and creator collabs from day one: 250+ collaborators building a living world around the music. That's why our TuneRegistry registrations matter so much — they keep the publishing plumbing flowing to seven agencies while the catalog grows into experiences, products, and licensing plays that a plain royalty stream could never touch.
4. House spotlight: Toys and Beats Vol. 1 — the label compilation
What happened: Released September 29 on Zillion Records, Toys and Beats Vol. 1 is the Epic Toy Sound label compilation — 12 tracks with 10 featured collaborators from the family: Darc Reign, Toymirth, Manyakfunks, Action Figure Maniacs, Rokez, KIDULT, Cosmic Panda, Mafia Trap Cult, Phonkfather, Reverb Society, and cover artist John's Toy Cave. From "Big Stompers" to "Drops of the Century" and "On thru," the compilation packs the whole sonic-taxonomy range into one release — and every track was pushed straight into the Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok social-music libraries so creators (and the NYCC booth wheel spinners this week) can drop it right into their content.
Why it matters: A compilation is a licensing weapon: twelve sync-ready tracks, one release, all feeding the content flywheel. While the majors chase single catalog deals, independent catalogs win by making every track usable everywhere, instantly.
The ETS/Zillion angle: This is the model in miniature — own everything (writer: Ronald Steven Desiderio, producer: Ronald Steven Desiderio, label: Zillion Records), platform the community, and make the music frictionless for creators. Creators: grab the Monster Within horror soundscape pack ($5.99) for your Halloween content, browse the digital audio packs for beats with commercial licenses, and don't sleep on the new drops — Time to Eat is out now, and the No Stop EP lands tomorrow, October 10. The catalog keeps growing, and every release is built to earn.
Yesterday in Toy Photography 📸
Six drops from the family on NYCC Day 1 — every frame scored with Epic Toy Sound audio, every post straight from the creator's original. Here's what the community put down yesterday:
1. @darc_reign — "Bout Ready" by Darc Reign / @epictoysound — Boa Hancock action figure with Luffy; figures by @instamashii, diorama by @geekstyledioramas. See the original post →
2. @kidult_1983 (Stevan Nikolic) — music by @epictoysound — The Invisible Man, "researching the art of invisibility and pouring a glass of fine scotch." 62 comments and counting. See the original post →
3. @gbalda (Gabriel Balda) — ETS family audio — his custom Jimmy Skeletor reel, available IN PERSON at NYCC booth 1771, plus custom art prints including Krang. See the original reel →
4. @manyakfunks — "Part of Me (Interlude)" (feat. Darc Reign) — horror carousel: "Behind every cage is a hunger waiting to be fed." Ronnie met him in person on the NYCC floor last night. See the original post →
5. @darc_reign — "Lost His Way in the Darc" by Darc Reign / @epictoysound — "A different kind of vengeance": Medicom Knightfall Azrael Batman in an @extreme_sets subway train diorama. See the original post →
6. @kidult_1983 (Stevan Nikolic) — "Weekly Wonder: Out of the Fog" — community roundup of fog-and-mist themed shots from across the family. 76 comments, the strongest engagement of the day. See the original post →
That's your Day 9. The machine keeps moving — new releases every Tuesday and Friday, new stories every morning, and creators all over the world building with our sound. One love. ✌️