Capital Will Facilitate GoldState's Strategy to Acquire Music Rights and Meet Growing Artist Demand for Music Rights Monetization

GoldState Music ("GoldState" or the "Company"), a premier music rights investment platform today announced that it has raised US$500 million in strategic capital, including a structured capital facility co-led by Northleaf Capital Partners ("Northleaf") and Ares Management funds ("Ares") as well as separately raised leverage. Additional terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.

"Our new relationship with Northleaf and Ares marks the next step in the evolution of our music investing strategy," said Charles Goldstuck, Founder and Managing Partner of GoldState. "This additional capital will enable us to further accelerate our ability to capitalize on increasing demand for music and build a diversified portfolio of music assets across artists and genres. As leading institutional investors, Northleaf and Ares bring critical experience that will support GoldState's continued growth and differentiation to the benefit of our artists, investors and other stakeholders."

"Led by Charles, GoldState is well-positioned to execute on a disciplined music acquisition strategy, and Northleaf is pleased to support the Company and its exceptional team," said CJ Wei, Managing Director, Private Credit at Northleaf. "Northleaf's investment in GoldState directly aligns with our asset-based specialty finance strategy, which is designed to provide our investors with diversified and low correlation exposure while delivering strong cash yield."

"Charles and GoldState Music bring a bold, visionary approach to music rights investment that seeks to empower artists," said Jeevan Sagoo, Managing Director at Ares Management. "We are excited to collaborate with them and provide Ares' deep sector and investment experience as they advance their long-term growth and value creation strategy."

About GoldState Music

GoldState Music is a private investment firm with a primary focus on the music sector. GoldState invests in music rights, enterprises in need of growth and expansion capital, as well as emerging music technology. The firm was founded in 2022 by Charles Goldstuck, and currently has offices in West Palm Beach, FL and Lake Nona, FL (Orlando). The team consists of experienced industry professionals who are deeply rooted in the music ecosystem.

About Northleaf Capital Partners

Northleaf Capital Partners is a global private markets investment firm with more than US$28 billion in private equity, private credit and infrastructure commitments raised to date from public, corporate and multi-employer pension plans, endowments, foundations, financial institutions and family offices. Northleaf's 275-person team is located in Toronto, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Menlo Park, Montreal, New York, Seoul and Tokyo. Northleaf sources, evaluates and manages private markets investments, with a focus on mid-market companies and assets. For more information, please visit www.northleafcapital.com.

About Ares Management Corporation

Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) is a leading global alternative investment manager offering clients complementary primary and secondary investment solutions across the credit, real estate, private equity and infrastructure asset classes. We seek to provide flexible capital to support businesses and create value for our stakeholders and within our communities. By collaborating across our investment groups, we aim to generate consistent and attractive investment returns throughout market cycles. As of December 31, 2024, including the acquisition of GCP International which closed on March 1, 2025, Ares Management Corporation's global platform had over $525 billion of assets under management, with operations across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. For more information, please visit www.aresmgmt.com.

This document is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a general solicitation, offer or invitation in any Northleaf-managed funds in the United States or in any other jurisdiction and has not been prepared in connection with any such offer.

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GoldState:

Yonas Aregai

Chief of Staff

yonas@goldstate.com

Northleaf:

Sneha Satish

Stanton

+1 646 502 3556

ssatish@stantonprm.com

Gina Lee

Northleaf

Director, Corporate Communications & Corporate Investor Relations

+1 416 389 7667

gina.lee@northleafcapital.com

Ares:

Jacob Silber

media@aresmgmt.com