Bob Dylan has sold the rights to his entire catalog of recorded music to Sony, the music industry giant announced on Monday, January 24, the latest episode in a series of repertoire takeovers, which have become valuable assets in the age of streaming. .
The deal, which dates back to July 2021 but was only announced on Monday, covers almost sixty years of music by the legendary American folk and country singer, winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, from his self-titled debut album in 1962, which was a fiasco, until Rough and Rowdy Ways in 2020. A total of 39 albums.
Beyond tubes like Like a Rolling Stone, Tangled Up in Blue Where Just Like a Woman, the transaction also covers “rights of future new releases” of songs by the 80-year-old artist, according to a statement from Sony Music Entertainment (SME). The amount of the purchase has not been communicated, but sites specializing in the music industry, such as Billboard and variety, mention an amount greater than 200 million dollars.
Author of texts committed against social injustice, war, racism and slavery, living legend of American music, Bob Dylan had already marked the music industry by selling, at the end of 2020, all of his rights to author (separate from the recording rights sold to Sony) to another giant, Universal, for an amount estimated at the time at 300 million dollars.
While copyrights make it possible to earn dividends on the airing of a title on the radio or in streaming, on album sales or on their use in an advertisement or in a film, copyright holders recording can decide on future reissues.
“Bob Dylan and SME will continue to collaborate on a whole series of reissues of the artist’s catalog”, announces Sony, quoting the famous series of Bootleg. These albums of unpublished versions of his masterpieces or lives started in 1991 and are now in their 16th volume.
The deal solidifies a long-standing relationship between Sony and Bob Dylan, who signed in 1961 to Columbia Records, which became a subsidiary of the music giant. “Columbia Records and Rob Stringer (the chairman of Sony Music Group) have always been good to me, for many, many years and many records. I’m glad all my recordings can stay where they belong”, said the poet singer, quoted in the press release.
This transaction is the latest episode in a long series of copyright buyouts or the publishing of catalogs of artists who are dead or alive but deemed timeless and have become precious assets, particularly with the streaming revolution.
For months, the names of artists have been added to the list, such as David Bowie, whose copyright was acquired by Warner for an estimated $250 million. Or “Boss” Bruce Springsteen, who sold the copyright and recording rights to all of his repertoire to Sony in December for an estimated $550 million. Before them Tina Turner, Neil Young or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others, had already carried out such operations.
After a difficult phase during the 2000s, the music industry has picked up with streaming, a major source of income for catalog owners. Sony, Universal or Warner, the three giants of the music industry, are now seeing the sector invested by new players, investment funds like Hipgnosis, interested in the safe assets represented by the classics.