“Bob Dylan sells his entire 600 song catalogue - a collection spanning six decades and estimated to be worth more than $300 million - to Universal in 'biggest deal of its kind EVER”
"The catalogue contains 600 song copyrights including ‘Blowin´ In The Wind’, ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’, and ‘Knockin´ On Heaven´s Door’
Financial terms were not disclosed in the announcement made on Monday 7th December 2020
Sir Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group, called the songs ‘brilliant and moving, inspiring and beautiful, insightful and provocative’
Dylan´s songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times, by various artists
It comes weeks after the singer-songwriter´s musings about anti-Semitism and unpublished song lyrics sold at auction for a total of $495,000
Dylan has sold more than 125 million records and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, the first songwriter to receive such a distinction
Dylan, 79, has, until now, retained control of most of his songwriting copyrights."
Yeah, I heard about this. Makes you wonder why, and why now? Is he about ready to retire and wanting to make sure his estate is maxed out? I know I would in his position.
Just when I thought I had all his studio albums on cd and some on original LP, it looks like they are going to be re-released. Not sure I want to buy them all over again.
There’s a UK listed investment vehicle called Hipgnosis Songs Fund which has been buying up catalogue rights recently. To date they have invested something like £1.8 billion and are talking about a pipeline of opportunities totalling a further billion. That will doubtless have stimulated activity in the market and as @Graeme says may just have coincided with Dylan doing a bit of retirement planning.
I remember seeing a DSOTM documentary where Roger Waters took on the shift from socialist to capitalist when the millions started to come in…
( and the adapt requirements he had to make to his own beliefs)
Must admit this is one reason why I have very cold feet about streaming, suspect at some point (fairly soon) I will switch to a Mac Mini and start buying digital albums , this caused by space constraints
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a gypsy queen,
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle all dressed in green,
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle 'til the moon is blue,
Wiggle 'til the moon sees you.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup,
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop,
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead,
Wiggle - you can raise the dead.
Aw, come on you lot. If you’d been to that party, you’d have written lyrics just like them. At least he didn’t have underpants on his head and pencils up his nose…did he?
