Various financial investors were certainly interested, but the contract for the rights to the texts and compositions of the works by David Bowie was ultimately awarded to Warner Music.

The publishing division of the third largest music company in the world is said to have paid around 250 million dollars to the heirs of the superstar, who died on January 10, 2016.

Looking at Bowie's recordings, Warner and the artist's estate administrators have worked together for a long time.

Benjamin Fischer

Editor in business.

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It was not until September that both parties signed a new license agreement under which Warner will take over the marketing of all recordings made since 1968 from 2023.

Bowie's more recent works from 2000 onward were released on Sony Music's Columbia Records label.

But obviously the partnership with the number two in the industry is coming to an end, and the heirs are relying wholeheartedly on Warner.

With a license deal, you in fact retain the rights to the recordings and your rights to royalties from marketing them.

Bowie bonds found imitators

Bowie himself had increasingly focused on controlling his rights over the course of his career. To keep this complete, in 1997 he worked with David Pullman on a special solution. Secured with the future royalties from the marketing of his old recordings, the so-called "Bowie Bonds" were issued, which brought the namesake 55 million dollars. This instrument was not only used by Bowie, who was always innovative as a musician, to buy his shares in the old recordings from his former manager.

Among other things, the heavy metal band Iron Maiden subsequently also issued bonds.

However, the imminent crisis in the music industry should make the ratings of the bonds difficult to create.

Due to illegal download platforms such as Napster and the ability to copy CDs, the sales figures for sound carriers plummeted.

Bowie himself told the New York Times in 2002 in view of this development that music will in future be viewed like running water and electricity and that copyrights will probably no longer be worth anything in 10 years' time.

Internet service as a competitor to AOL and Co

The ongoing streaming boom proves him right with a view to the first assessment - just differently than he probably meant it at the time.

With Spotify and Co, listeners have permanent access to a library of more than 70 million songs.

Unthinkable at the CD's weddings, for example, but now completely normal for many music fans.

Streaming is also the main reason why a lot of money has been spent on rights to proven catalogs for some time now.

After all, every stream of a song incurs a small amount - not to mention the use of works in films, series or other digital channels such as Tiktok or Peloton.

Here, the development has refuted Bowie's assessment from 2002 and now brought his heirs many millions of dollars in one fell swoop.

Of course, Bowie did not demonize the Internet by any means, but rather recognized its possibilities early on.

As early as 1996 he published the song “Telling Lies” on his website - the work was downloaded more than 300,000 times.

In 1997 he tried a live broadcast (called "cybercast") of a concert in Boston before he started his own Internet service on September 1, 1998, initially in North America: Bowienet.

The offer acted as competition to providers like AOL.

In addition to a news feed and live chats with Bowie, users could browse through a collection of photos, videos and interviews by the artist.

Revival of the bond idea

On top of that, they were given their own Bowienet email address for a monthly fee. With the idea of ​​bringing artists and fans together in this way, Bowie was once again ahead of his time. The social network Myspace, which has long been popular among musicians, did not start until 2003, for example. Bowie was also early on in an area that Warner Music sees as another promising marketing element for music with a view to the Metaverse. In 1999 he contributed the soundtrack to the video game "Omikron: The Nomad Soul" and was also featured in it as a character.

Bowienet's time as an Internet provider ended in 2006, and the site itself was also increasingly out of focus.

Bowie's music is still popular, and Warner will continue to offer various new editions of his 27 studio albums (including the posthumously released “Toy”) and market the works elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the continued growth of the music industry and the rush for lucrative rights, the idea of ​​bonds has also found new imitators.

As Bloomberg recently reported, the private equity company Northleaf Capital plans to raise around $ 304 million through asset-backed securities.

Income from the exercise of the recording and authoring rights of 52,729 songs - including those penned by The Who front man Pete Townshend - serve as security.