Sales of musical catalogs | Why buy yesterday’s hits with millions?

Three weeks ago, Sting sold the rights he held to his songs and those of The Police for 250 million. Before Christmas, Bruce Springsteen sold his family for a sum that would be around 500 million. What justifies this rain of dollars on artists who have less time in front of them than behind and whose “natural” audience is not that of the TikTok generation?

Alexandre Vigneault
The Press

We must first make an important distinction to understand the logic behind these disbursements: the recording industry, which was very lucrative until the turn of the 2000s, has always been the most visible link in the world of music in wider. “Before, the edition [musicale] was not seen as such an important sector,” says Patrick Curley, founder of Third Side Music, a company specializing in music publishing and catalog management.

With the digital revolution, the economic value of music depends more than ever on the rights associated with the songs themselves and their distribution.

It is these revenues that are in the sights of Sony, Universal, BMG or specialized firms such as Hipgnosis and Primary Waves. By buying, in whole or in part, the rights to a song, they make sure to receive money each time it is listened to on a platform like Spotify and Apple Music, that it is broadcast on the radio , in a business, or a theater or that it is placed in a television series, a film, an advertisement or a video game.

Focus on future income

The math, for Tina Turner or Sting, is pretty straightforward. “Rather than making, say, 5 or 30 million per year with their rights, they sell their future income, sums up Guillaume Déziel, entrepreneur specializing in the management and sharing of intellectual property. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. “For buyers, these investments of hundreds of millions would be profitable over periods of 10 to 25 years, estimate the experts consulted by The Press.

The status of artists who have sold their catalog at high prices is not in doubt: it is the aristocracy of pop and rock. Or rather, yesterday’s elite. Springsteen and Tina Turner are no longer young. Those whose music has accompanied them throughout their lives – their “natural” audience – neither. And even if they reached vast audiences, it is not sure that the TikTok generation will one day fall in love with Born to Run or of Private Dancer.

Isn’t it risky to bet so much on repertoires that may fall into oblivion? “It is very logical compared to the methods of listening on streaming platforms, says on the contrary Romuald Jamet, professor-researcher in sociology of culture and digital technology at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi. What is mainly listened to on the platforms is what are called catalog funds. The advantage of old hits is that they generate predictable revenue, adds Patrick Curley, whereas a Drake hit, for example, will generate a lot of listens in a short time before stabilizing at the decrease.

“The majority of people who listen [Neil Young]it’s not the fans, ”says Romuald Jamet.

This is not trivial: even if we have access to tens of millions of songs and streaming platforms offer the possibility of choice, the vast majority of people do not decide what they listen to. “Auditors do very little research on their own. It works mainly by algorithmic recommendation, ”says the sociologist. His research on listener behavior indicates that 80% of the time listeners listen to partially or fully computer-generated playlists.

With this transformation, music becomes, no more and no less, a financial product like any other, dependent on the confidence of investors. For a company like Hipgnosis, whose activity focuses on the purchase and promotion of musical catalogs, it is no longer the creation itself that has value, but the “notoriety of an artist”, says the sociologist.

Investing in yesterday’s music is considered less risky than launching a new artist. “From a business point of view, I agree, says Guillaume Déziel, who was the strategist behind Misteur Valaire, but from a cultural point of view, I find it rubbish. [comme vision]. »

Could Quebec singers benefit from such a golden bridge? Short answer: no. The artists who collect millions for their songs tour all over the world, which is the case for few artists from Quebec or the Francophonie, the exception being Celine Dion. “We can assume that Quebecor would be willing to promote the Quebec repertoire, in particular through its Qub music platform, advances Romuald Jamet, but we will not be talking about the same sums. »