Bob Dylan has sold his music catalog to Sony Music Entertainment for $200 million. This massive deal will give Sony the rights to use all of Dylan’s recorded music from 1962 onward.
The “Blowin’ In The Wind” singer’s decision comes as part of a recent movement among artists to sell their catalogs.
Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen are among the music legends that have done the same in the past few months.
Prior to this deal, Dylan sold the songwriting portion of his catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group for $300 million.
Neil Young sold a majority of his catalog to Hipgnosis Song Fund earlier this month for $150 million.
Bruce Springsteen struck a colossal deal with Sony back in December selling both his recording and songwriting rights to the company for $550 million.
In November, Stevie Nicks sold a portion of her publishing rights to songs like “Edge of Seventeen” and “Landslide,” for $100 million to Primary Wave.
If you’re wondering why all of these music icons are in a hurry to sign deals, the answer might have something to do with taxes.
Hannah Karp, the editorial director at Billboard told CNN, “It is a great time to sell, especially last year when capital gains taxes were going to go up under the Biden administration. Everyone was trying to sell before December 31 so it wouldn't be taxed [as high]. Bob got in under the wire like a lot of these other artists.”
She continued, "If artists were ever going to sell their music rights, now is a great moment because they won't get these prices forever."
Older artists may also see these deals as a way to preserve their legacies, prompting the sudden selling of catalogs.
"A lot of the artists that are selling their catalogs are getting to a point in their lives where they are planning their estates, sort of planning for the future and they are at a point in their lives where it makes sense to sell their music to provide for their families,” Karp explained.
Bob Dylan turned 80 in May.
