Sony Music confirmed, Thursday evening, November 16, to have bought all the musical rights of Bruce Springsteen. It is a record contract of half a billion dollars according to the press. In a press release, “Sony Music Group has announced that it has acquired the entire catalogs of recorded music and compositions by Bruce Springsteen through two agreements” distinct.
Without revealing the amount, the record company specified that “The two agreements covered the musical rights to all of Springsteen’s songs like ‘Born to Run’, ‘Born In The USA’, ‘Dancing in the Dark’ (…) and ‘I’m On Fire'”.
The information was unveiled Thursday morning by the American magazine Billboard and the New York Times who spoke of a record sum of 500 million dollars for this contract between the “Boss” and the Japanese group.
150 million records sold
Springsteen, immensely popular in the United States and abroad, has sold more than 150 million records in half a century while remaining faithful since 1972 to his label Columbia Records, in the bosom of the Japanese multinational Sony.
“For the past 50 years, the men and women of Sony Music have treated me with the utmost respect.”, recognized the 72-year-old artist, quoted in the press release. “I am delighted that my heritage continues to be protected by a company and people I know and trust”, he congratulated himself.
Owning the rights to catalogs – which make it possible to receive royalties for each use of a song, whether it is a download, a passage in a film or an advertisement – can prove to be very profitable on the market. long term.
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 streaming revolution: the financial markets have shown themselves to be fond of these “Wallets” artists deemed timeless and generating stable revenue streams.
Tina Turner or Bob Dylan too
Springsteen is the latest star to sell all or part of its music catalog through transactions of astronomical amounts but never officially confirmed. In October, 81-year-old Tina Turner sold her musical rights to German group BMG for a sum that remained confidential.
The 2016 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Bob Dylan, 80, sold his entire catalog to Universal Music in December 2020 for an estimated windfall of $ 300 million.
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.