- Mattia Bubalo
- BBC News
Justin Bieber performs in Hollywood, California earlier in January 2023
Canadian singer Justin Bieber has sold his stake in the rights to his music to music label Hipgnosis Songs Capital for $200 million.
The company now owns the rights to some of Bieber’s most successful songs in recent years, including “Baby” and “Sorry”.
Bieber, one of the most popular artists of the 21st century, joins a growing group of artists who have cashed in on the rights to their music.
The move means that hippgnosis will receive a handful of money every time a Bieber song is played, which they own part of the rights to in public.
The company, a $1 billion venture between financial giant Blackstone and Britain’s Hipgnosis Songs Management, acquired Bieber’s publishing rights to his 290-song record.
This includes all of his songs released before December 31, 2021, and the copyrights of their authors.
The deal also included the acquisition of the star’s share in his master recordings of the songs, that is, in their initial form before releasing them in their final version.
Hibgnosis did not disclose the terms of the deal, but a source told AFP that it was worth about $200 million.
Artists are increasingly selling their stakes in jukeboxes, most recently including Justin Timberlake and Shakira, who also have deals with Hippignosis.
However, this tendency is more common among older artists.
In the past two years, music legends Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen have both resold the rights to their records to Sony.
Springsteen received $500 million from the sale of his career.
The Hipgnosis Songs Fund is building a music catalog of hit songs and inviting major institutional investors to participate in the proceeds.
The fund was launched on the London Stock Exchange in July 2018.
The man who founded the Hippignosis fund, Merck Mercuriadis, previously said that hit songs could be “more valuable than gold or oil”.
“Justin Bieber’s influence on global culture over the past 14 years has been hugely remarkable,” he said during announcing the latest deal.
