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Friday, October 11, 2024 |
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Bob Dylan sells his songwriting catalog in blockbuster deal |
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Bob Dylan in New York in 1963. On Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, the Universal Music Publishing Group announced that it had signed a landmark deal to purchase Dylans entire songwriting catalog including world-changing classics like Blowin in the Wind, The Times They Are A-Changin and Like a Rolling Stone in what may be the biggest acquisition ever of the music publishing rights of a single act. William C. Eckenberg/The New York Times.
by Ben Sisario
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NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- On Monday, the Universal Music Publishing Group announced that it had signed a landmark deal to purchase Bob Dylans entire songwriting catalog including world-changing classics like Blowin in the Wind, The Times They Are A-Changin and Like a Rolling Stone in what may be the biggest acquisition ever of the music publishing rights of a single songwriter.
The deal, which covers Dylans entire career, from his earliest tunes to his latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, was struck directly with Dylan, 79, who has long controlled the vast majority of his own songwriting copyrights.
The price was not disclosed but is estimated at more than $300 million.
Its 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, chief executive of the Universal Music Group, said.
The deal is the latest and most high profile in this years buzzing market for music catalogs, as artists both young and old have sold their songs, while publishers and investors have raised billions of dollars from both public and private sources to persuade writers to part with their creations.
Since Universal now controls his work, Dylan will no longer have veto power over how his songs will be used.
Still, Universal insisted it would be tasteful in its use of Dylans work.
Dylans deal includes 100% of his rights for all the songs of his catalog, including both the income he receives as a songwriter and his control of each songs copyright. In exchange for its payment to Dylan, Universal, a division of French media conglomerate Vivendi, will collect all future income from the songs.
Dylan had no comment on the deal.
The deal includes more than 600 songs spread across a number of publishing companies that Dylan has had over the years. With the exception of his original Leeds Music deal which included seven songs, among them Song for Woody and Talkin New York Dylan eventually took full control of all his copyrights from those catalogs; Leeds was sold in 1964 to MCA, which became Universal.
But the agreement does not include any of Dylans unreleased songs. It also doesnt cover any work Dylan writes in the future.
© 2020 The New York Times Company
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