It is likely to be the largest catalog sale by a single artist to date, and he joins an ever-growing list of similar deals: Bruce Springsteen sells the rights to his collected recordings and his author's rights, according to the industry magazine "Billboard" and the "New York Times" , i.e. those of the underlying texts and compositions, of Sony Music.

The second largest music company in the world would thus hold all rights to the 72-year-old star's work in the future.

Sony Music initially did not comment on the reports on an agreement at the request of the FAZ.

Benjamin Fischer

Editor in business.

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According to reports, the deal includes around 300 songs, 20 studio albums, 23 albums and other releases - including super hits like “Born to Run”, “Born in the USA” or “No Surrender”.

The price is said to be around $ 500 million, well above the price paid by Universal Music in December 2020 for the rights to texts and compositions by Bob Dylan.

Up to $ 400 million had been mentioned here.

Sony as a logical choice

The sale had begun, not least in view of the onslaught of financial investors such as KKR, Blackstone or Apollo Global Management for rights to works by established artists, which is fueling the already high price level. Billboard had already reported talks in early November without both sides commenting on them. In the case of Springsteen, Sony Music was always the favorite for the bid, especially with regard to the rights to the recordings. Because Springsteen has been working with the Sony label Columbia Records since 1972. All of his albums were released through this.

Unlike many artists at his age, he got the rights to his recordings back in the nineties as part of negotiations about the release of further albums and has controlled it himself ever since.

What proportion of the income from the marketing of publications goes to the artists, however, always depends on the respective contract constellation.

He also held the rights to his texts and compositions, although the publishing division of Universal Music had recently taken over the evaluation.

Reaction to the upcoming tax reform in the USA?

In the wake of the latest boom, the majority of authors' rights have been sold so far. Those who keep them are involved in every use of text and compositions - for example in films or cover songs. However, recording accounts for a much larger proportion of the distributions from streaming or the sale of sound carriers.

Sometimes artists only sell the portion of the income to which they are entitled from the evaluation of the rights.

This usually happens when the rights are still with the respective label.

However, financial investors and interested buyers from the music industry are betting on getting a chance, as in the next few years many rights are likely to revert to the respective musicians after a long time, as Bertelsmann's music boss Hartwig Masuch emphasized to the FAZ in July.

The music division of the media group (BMG) recently struck here when the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe was recording.

Springsteen is in good company

In the past few months, many prominent artists have opted for a high one-off payment instead of collecting regular royalty payments. While David Crosby (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) justified his sale with the Corona-related lack of live income, which is immensely important for many musicians, financial hardships should not be the reason for the sale even with Springsteen. American industry media, however, repeatedly associate catalog deals by American artists with a possible increase in taxes on capital gains by the US Democrats.

In addition to Bob Dylan, Neil Young recently sold 50 percent of his authoring rights to the Hipgnosis Fund, Paul Simon in turn reached an agreement with Sony's publishing division, while the US publisher Primary Wave bought 80 percent of the authoring rights from Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks Reportedly about $ 100 million paid.

Younger artists such as the US bands The Killers and Imagine Dragons also cashed in on some of their authoring rights last year.

The example of Elton John shows that not every veteran in the industry can come to terms with relinquishing control of his work for a substantial sum.

A sale was "unthinkable", said his husband David Furnish recently the industry website "Music Business Worldwide".