At a time when ownership is an on-going conversation especiallyin show business, musical icons and mega artists instead line up to cash in on their music catalogue.
Award winning Canadian born singer, Justin Bieber has reportedly sold his 291-song catalogue to Hipgnosis Songs Capital for a whooping 200million USD(Ksh 24.8 billion).
The 2-time Grammy-winning musician sold his rights to every song released up until the end of 2021.
This comes less than a fortnight after Dr Dre, who is arguably the biggest name in HipHop sold his music catalogue to Universal Music & Shamrock Holdings for 190 million USD(Ksh 23.5 Billion) in two separate transactions.
This sale included 2 of his solo albums as well as his cut of royalties from his former group N.W.A. These Dr Dre assets are reported to generate at least $10 million annually which seems like a good investment on Universal & Shamrock in the long term but an even better investment for Dre in the short term.
The founder of Hipgnosis Song Management said that the deal sealed by Justin Bieber is rumoured to be one of the most lucrative deals ever struck for an artist under the age of 70.
“At only 28 years of age, he is one of a handful of defining artists of the streaming era that has revitalized the entire music industry.” said Merck Mercuriadis; HSM founder.
Hipgnosis also owns the song catalogue of other famous artists including Justin Timberlake who reportedly sold his for 100 million USD(Ksh 12.4 billion)
Hipgnosis now has 100% stake in profits made from Justin Bieber’s writing/recording credits as well as the money made from any public plays of the song in movies, commercials, restaurants etc. Bieber’s s recorded masters will however, continue to be owned by Universal Music Group.
What do you think about this move by said artists? Could ownership be an overated phenomenon?
J.K.Raminya
