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Dylan, Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac catalogs sale: the pandemic boosts music publishing

The pandemic has sidelined the entertainment industry, but the usually low-profile music publishing industry is showing a resounding shape thanks to a frenzy of music catalog sales.

Owning the rights to catalogs (which makes it possible to receive royalties for each use of a song, whether it is a download, a passage in a film or an advertisement) can be very profitable on the market. long term. And investors are increasingly interested in it, as the coronavirus has cut the revenues of many sectors.

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Bob Dylan

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Photo d’archives, AFP

Bob Dylan



Some recent deals have reached record amounts, although they have not been officially confirmed: Bob Dylan has sold his entire catalog to Universal Music Publishing for an estimated amount of $ 300 million, while Stevie Nicks, of Fleetwood Mac, would have obtained 100 million for its majority share of the catalog of the group.

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Neil Young

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Photo d’archives, AFP

Neil Young



Canadian-American singer Neil Young and the duo behind Blondie have also signed deals for unspecified amounts, as has Shakira.

Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, also of Fleetwood Mac, also each announced sales, including the rights to “Dreams”, a 1977 hit that was recently revived on TikTok.

“Forced retirement”

The “fantastic” increase in catalog prices had started before 2020, but amplified with the pandemic, explains Nari Matsuura, partner at Massarsky Consulting, a specialist in catalog evaluation.

Investor interest in the industry, she says, is also fueled by rising streaming revenues, which appear to be long-term, low interest rates and reliable earnings projections for artists. that stand the test of time.

As for the musicians, many, deprived of tours since the beginnings of the Covid-19, are now seeking to monetize their catalog, the value of which continues to increase.

“We see names, iconic artists (…) that we never imagined they would sell,” says Nari Matsuura.

Some decide to sell to take advantage of the current high prices. Others could also be motivated by a possible imminent increase in taxes on capital in the United States, with the coming to power of Joe Biden.

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David Crosby

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Photo d’archives, AFP

David Crosby



For David Crosby (star singer-songwriter of the Byrds and co-founder of Crosby, Stills and Nash, which announced the sale of its catalog in December), the pandemic is primarily responsible, depriving artists of their main source of income, concerts.

“The main reason is simply that we are all like in forced retirement, and there is nothing we can do about it,” he told AFP in a video interview from his home in California.

“I would not have sold if I had not been obliged to,” he added, deploring the policy of streaming platforms, which he said pay most musicians with a slingshot. except the big names of the moment.

Market appetite

Among the companies at the forefront of these catalog sales: British investment firm Hipgnosis Songs Fund, listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2018, Primary Wave, which signed the deal with Stevie Nicks, and investment funds like Tempo Investments, Round Hill and Reservoir.

Hipgnosis, led by Merck Mercuriadis, ex-manager of Elton John or Iron Maiden, points out that catalog revenues are impermeable to market movements: people “always consume music” and, thanks to streaming, “almost always pay for, ”says the company in its 2020 annual report.

“Even though we didn’t want the pandemic to show it, that’s exactly what it did,” adds Hipgnosis, who has spent more than $ 1 billion to acquire catalogs, including those of Neil Young, Blondie , Shakira and RZA.

For Jane Dyball, former director general of the Association of British Music Publishers, there has “always been movement on catalogs, behind the scenes”.

But recent mass purchases, of Hipgnosis in particular, have given them new visibility and raised the stakes.

“Financial markets clearly seem to like music publishing,” she says.

This trend worries Crosby who, even if he has sold his catalog, regrets the time when fans “paid us for our work”.

The terms of catalog sales contracts vary from artist to artist and are rarely public, but the proliferation of transactions should make these songs easier to use for movies or commercials, which Crosby laments.

But those who treat artists who have monetized their catalog as “sold”, as some have done on social networks, “know nothing and are jealous,” he says.

“I cannot perform in concert, and I am not paid for my recordings. So what should I do? “

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