Bruce Springsteen and Sony
Seems everybody’s doing it — selling their IP rights
It should come as no surprise that Bruce Springsteen has sold the master recordings and publishing rights for his life’s work to Sony for a reported $500m (£376m).
It seems everybody’s doing it. Selling publishing rights has become a trend lately. Warner Music purchased the worldwide rights to David Bowie’s music in September. Bob Dylan sold his catalogue of more than 600 songs in December last year to Universal Music Group for $300m.
Now Bruce has come to party. His music generated about $15m in revenue last year, and it means Sony will now own 20 of his studio albums, including Born To Run, The River, and Born In The USA.
These sort of deals provide immediate financial security to the artists and their estates, while the rights-holders hope to profit by building new revenue streams for the music via film and TV licensing, merchandise, cover versions, and performance royalties.
