After being active in the music and songwriting industry for over 60 years, musical legend Bob Dylan has decided to sell his song catalogue to for an amount estimated to be $300m at least, to Universal Music Publishing Group. The 80-year-old American songwriter has almost 600 songs in his catalogue. The Universal-Dylan deal has become one of the biggest catalogue sales in history.
“It’s no secret that the art of songwriting is the fundamental key to all great music, nor is it a secret that Bob is one of the very greatest practitioners of that art,” Lucian Grainge, the chief executive of the Universal Music Group said in a statement while announcing the deal. Universal has struck a gold mine with Dylan’s catalogue as the company will now rake up all the future revenue all the streams and buys. His music may also be used for advertisements, movie scores or anything else that Universal deems fit. Dylan, who is considered as one of the greatest songwriters of all time has churned out hits like ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and ‘Blowin in the Wind’ and has sold over 125 million records around the world. He was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. A lot of singers have sold their catalogues in recent times for huge sums as investors find music streaming very profitable. And according to a BBC report, London-based Hipgnosis Songs Fund has spent more than $1bn buying up Rihanna, Beyonce and Justin Timberlake songs and the investors who share royalties include the Church Of England. Once considered a foolish move, sale of song catalogues has become the new norm for musicians to make millions quickly and invest for the future. Merck Mercuriadis the founder of Hipgnosis has said that great and proven songs have a predictable income and can be considered an asset as valuable as oil and it is safe to say Universal just got itself the most valuable asset out there.
