Since its origin as a music publishing and administration company, Primary Wave has expanded into talent management, film and TV production, digital marketing, and branding.

[6] Primary Wave Music Publishing was founded in 2006 after an introduction of Courtney Love to founder Lawrence Mestel, resulted in the purchase of 50% of Kurt Cobain's portion of the Nirvana catalog.

[7] The Nirvana purchase would eventually galvanize Primary Wave's acquisitions of Chicago, Albert Hammond Jr., Bo Diddley, Steven Tyler, John Lennon, Lamont Dozier, Hall & Oates, Def Leppard, and Maurice White's (of Earth, Wind & Fire) publishing catalogs.

[13] In January 2018, Primary Wave acquired an 80 percent share in Chris Blackwell's Blue Mountain Music, one of the largest independent publishers, which included the rights to Bob Marley.

[20] In August 2021, Primary Wave acquired a stake in Prince's music assets which include royalty streams from the songs "When You Were Mine," "I Wanna Be Your Lover," "1999," "Little Red Corvette," and "When Doves Cry".

[25] In August 2023, it was announced Primary Wave had acquired the music publishing catalog rights for the majority of compositions written by Dennis DeYoung - founding member of the band, Styx.