Per Pitchfork, Bruce Springsteen has sold the masters of his entire catalog to Sony Music and the coinciding music publishing rights to Sony Music Publishing in a combined deal of around $500 million, Billboard reports.
Springsteen’s catalog includes over 300 songs, 20 studio albums, 23 live LPs, 7 EPs, and more.
Springsteen released his albums through Sony imprint Columbia Records in his 50 year long career. He was granted ownership of his earlier records in the late 1980s and 1990s as an incentive to re-sign with the label.
He entered negotiations with Sony last month to sell his album catalog while he also simultaneously shopped around his publishing catalog, which was under Universal Music Publishing Group, according to Billboard.
This deal arrives one year after Universal Music Publishing Group purchased Bob Dylan’s extensive publishing catalog for more than $300 million. In 2019, the master rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums were sold for over $300 million as well.
James Brown’s Estate also sold his rights including image and likeness to Primary Wave this week after a fifteen year contentious internal battle. The deal is allegedly in the region of $90 million.
The sale to Primary Wave Music, for an estimated $90 million, provides resources to ultimately realize the musician’s wish to fund scholarships for needy children according to the New York Times.
Primary Wave Music is a New York company that specializes in marketing estates and song catalogs, bought the assets of the Brown estate, including music rights, real estate and the control over Brown’s name and likeness.
