(New York) The “Boss” Bruce Springsteen has sold his musical rights to Sony for half a billion dollars, according to the press, the latest transaction to date among planetary rock stars taken since 2020 from a frenzy of sales of their catalogs .
According to unconfirmed information from the trade magazine Billboard and New York Times, the sale for some $ 500 million – possibly a record amount – includes the singer’s catalog of recorded music and his songwriter work. Including the famous single Born in the USA, sold nearly 30 million copies.
Asked by the New York Times, Springsteen’s entourage declined to comment and Sony Music did not respond to AFP’s requests.
150 million records
The 72-year-old ‘Boss’, immensely popular in the United States and abroad, has sold over 150 million records in half a century and has remained loyal to the Columbia Records label, part of the Japanese multinational Sony. .
Bruce Springsteen is the last music star to sell all or part of his catalog in this way, after Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young.
Owning the rights to catalogs – which make it possible to earn royalties each time a song is used, whether it is a download, a passage in a film or an advertisement – can prove to be very profitable on the market. long term.
Consequence of COVID-19
Experts note that since 2020, a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, major maneuvers have been in full swing for the acquisition of musical rights, in particular with the revolution of streaming : the financial markets showing themselves to be fond of these “portfolios” of artists considered timeless and generating stable revenue streams.
Recent transactions have reached astronomical amounts, although never officially confirmed.
In October, 81-year-old Tina Turner sold her musical rights to German group BMG for an amount that remained confidential.
The 2016 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Bob Dylan, 80, sold his entire catalog to Universal Music last December for an estimated windfall of $ 300 million. Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks reportedly got $ 100 million for his majority share of the group’s catalog.
Canadian-American singer Neil Young and the duo behind Blondie also signed deals for unspecified amounts, as did Shakira.
According to industry experts, the increase in catalog prices began before 2020, but the amounts really skyrocketed with the pandemic when artists found themselves deprived of tours and concerts.
Among the companies at the forefront of these catalog sales: the British investment firm Hipgnosis Songs Fund, listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2018, Primary Wave, which signed the agreement with Stevie Nicks, and investment funds like Tempo Investments, Round Hill and Reservoir.
Hipgnosis, led by Merck Mercuriadis, former manager of Elton John or the hard rock group Iron Maiden, underlined in its 2020 annual report that catalog revenues were independent of the ups and downs of the financial markets: people “always consume music »And, thanks to streaming, “Almost always pay for,” the company wrote last January.
As for Bruce Springsteen, he clearly shows his political color in the United States: he released in October Renegades: Born in the USA, a book of conversations with former President Barack Obama (2009-2017) and sang in New York on September 11 in front of President Joe Biden in commemoration of the attacks 20 years ago.