The disk house did not specify the amount but the US press speaks of a record a record of half a billion dollars.
Le Monde with AFP
Sony Music confirmed on Thursday, November 16, having bought the entire musical rights of Bruce Springsteen. This is a record of half a billion dollars according to the press. In a statement, “Sony Music Group has announced having acquired the entire recorded music catalogs and Bruce Springsteen compositions via two” distinct “agreements.
Without unveiling the amount, the record company said that “the two agreements covered the musical rights of all Springsteen songs like” Born to Run “,” Born in the USA “,” Dancing in the dark ” (…) and “I’m we fire”.
The information had been unveiled Thursday morning by the American magazine Billboard and the New York Times who spoke of a record $ 500 million for this contract between The “boss” and the Japanese group.
150 million disks sold
Springsteen, immensely popular in the United States and abroad, sold more than 150 million records in half a century since 1972 to its label Columbia Records, in the fun of the Japanese multinational Sony.
“In the last 50 years, the men and women of Sony Music treated me with the greatest respect,” said the 72-year-old artist, cited in the press release. “I am delighted that my inheritance continues to be protected by a business and people I know and in whom I trust,” he congratulated.
The holding of catalog rights – which allow to reach royalties each use of a song, whether it is a download, a passage in a movie or an advertisement – may be very profitable over the long term.
Experts are that since 2020, a consequence of the CVIV-19 pandemic, large maneuvers are full for the acquisition of musical rights, especially with the revolution of streaming: the financial markets are fond of these “portfolios “Artists deemed timeless and generating stable revenue streams.
Tina Turner or Bob Dylan too
Springsteen is the last star in date for sale all or part of his musical catalog via transactions on astronomical amounts but never officially confirmed. In October, Tina Turner, 81, sold his musical rights to the German group BMG for a confidential sum,
The 2016 laureate of the Literature Nobel Prize, Bob Dylan, 80, had sold in December 2020 the entire catalog in Universal Music for an estimated 300 million dollars.
According to the industry experts, the price increase of catalogs started before 2020, but the amounts really flared with the pandemic when artists found themselves deprived of tours and concerts.