Sony Music
Music company in negotiations to buy Queen’s music catalogue
Freddie Mercury with his band Queen and a gold record in 1976 – their hits could soon belong to Sony Music.
© imago/Avalon.red
Sony Music is negotiating the purchase of the music catalog of the cult band Queen. The deal could cost up to a billion dollars.
Between its founding in 1970 and the death of its singer Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) in 1991, the British rock band Queen developed into a real hit machine. With songs like “We Will Rock You”, “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” they wrote music history around the world. Now, according to reports, their mega hits are changing hands as a package and could bring in a record sum.
Potential purchase amount of one billion dollars
According to a report by Bloomberg The music giant Sony Music is currently negotiating with another investor to purchase the cult band’s entire music catalog. In addition to the music rights, this mega deal could also include other marketing opportunities such as merchandising. A potential purchase price of up to one billion US dollars is being discussed.
As the magazine further reports, the remaining band members Brian May (76), Roger Taylor (74), John Deacon (72) and the estate of Freddie Mercury are equal shareholders in Queen Productions Ltd, which, according to company information, generated sales of 52 million dollars in 2022.
In recent years, some well-known music greats have sold their songwriting catalogs. For example, Bruce Springsteen’s (74) back catalog was sold to Sony for an estimated $500 million in 2021, while Warner Music spent around $250 million on songs by David Bowie (1947-2016) in 2022.