The Shake it Off singer is planning to re-record the master tracks of those albums to regain rights to the songs, having been at war with Braun since he acquired them by buying the record label Big Machine, which she was signed to, 18 months ago. Taylor Swift In November, Scooter Braun, famous for managing Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, sold the rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums to private equity firm Shamrock for $300m. Universal Music’s publishing arm has deals with stars including Taylor Swift, Elton John and his co-writer Bernie Taupin, Adele and the Bee Gees. Vivendi is planning a stock market flotation of Universal Music in 2022. Last last year, Vivendi, which owns Universal Music, sold a 10% stake in the business for €3bn, valuing the company at €30bn. Its owner, Len Blavatnik, had paid just $3.3bn for the company in 2011 as the music business approached its nadir. In June, Warner Music, the world’s third largest largest music company and whose artists include Ed Sheeran, floated in the US, selling $1.9bn in shares and achieving a market value of more than $12bn. The pandemic has hobbled many industries, including live music, but has not halted the growth in streaming. Last year global music sales grew for the fifth consecutive year, to $20.2bn, driven by a 23% growth in streaming, having hit a low of $14bn in 2013.īy the end of this year there will be more than 450 million subscribers to paid music services including Apple, Amazon and Spotify. Since 2013, annual revenues made by plays of Bon Jovi’s 34-year-old hit Livin’ on a Prayer have increased by 153%.įollowing more than a decade of plummeting CD sales, the music industry is undergoing a revival. The streaming revolution is proving to be a particular moneyspinner for owners of song rights to older hits. In the second quarter of this year, at the height of the global pandemic, Spotify reported a 29% year-on-year increase in monthly users as revenues hit €1.8bn (£1.6bn). Merck Mercuriadis, the founder of Hipgnosis and former manager of acts including Elton John, Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses and Beyoncé, has described investing in music royalties as a better bet than gold or oil, as their evergreen nature makes for uninterrupted returns even when wider economic markets are struggling. Jody Gerson, the chief executive of Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), said: “To represent the body of work of one of the greatest songwriters of all time, whose cultural importance cannot be overstated, is both a privilege and a responsibility.”
Unlike most big-name artists, who are locked into deals giving up publishing rights early in their career, Dylan owned the rights to his own music, which was administered outside the US by Sony/ATV Publishing.
Dylan has produced more than 50 albums and continues to tour, playing about 100 concerts a year. Other back-catalogue investments include Michael Jackson’s purchase of 250 Lennon-McCartney songs as part of a $47.5m deal in 1985.ĭylan’s songs remain hugely popular, having been recorded more than 6,000 times by dozens of artists, including Adele, Guns N’ Roses, Bob Marley, U2 and Stevie Wonder. In November, the publishing rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums, the subject of a bitter row between the singer and owner Big Machine, were sold to a private equity group, Shamrock, for more than $300m.
Last week it was revealed that Stevie Nicks, the Fleetwood Mac singer and solo artist, sold a majority stake in her publishing catalogue for $100m to the music publisher Primary Wave. The London-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which gives investors the chance to make money from royalties generated by songs by artists from Beyoncé to Blondie, has spent £1.2bn buying 117 catalogues to date.
“Nor is it a secret that Bob is one of the very greatest practitioners of that art.”Īrtists and songwriters receive a royalty every time a song is played on the radio, streamed or used in public places such as department stores, as well as income from sales of albums, singles and licensing music for use in TV adverts and films.Ĭashing in on catalogues is a booming business. “It’s no secret that that the art of songwriting is the fundamental key to all great music,” said Sir Lucian Grainge, the chief executive of Universal Music. Bob Dylan, ‘one of the very greatest practitioners of the art of songwriting’, on stage in 2010.