Common didn’t disclose a value for the deal, although Dylan’s songs are price greater than $200m, say folks acquainted with the phrases.
Common Music Group is buying Bob Dylan’s complete tune catalog, a set that spans six a long time and contains lots of the most iconic tracks in music historical past.
Common didn’t disclose a value for the deal, although Dylan’s songs are price greater than $200 million, in line with folks acquainted with the phrases. The gathering encompasses 600 works, from early-’60s songs akin to “Blowin’ within the Wind” and “The Occasions They Are a-Changin’” to an album launched simply this yr, “Tough and Rowdy Methods.”
Dylan, 79, is cashing in on the growth in music rights. The worth of songs and recordings has skyrocketed in recent times because of streaming, which has fueled a five-year enlargement for the music trade after a deep hunch. He isn’t promoting the recordings, that are a separate asset.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that his huge physique of labor has captured the love and admiration of billions of individuals all around the globe,” Common Chief Government Officer Lucian Grainge mentioned in an announcement. “I’ve little question that a long time, even centuries from now, the phrases and music of Bob Dylan will proceed to be sung and performed — and cherished — in all places.”
Tune rights, represented by music publishers, don’t often fetch as a lot cash as recordings. However they could be a extra dependable income. Songs can be utilized to make cash in a wide range of methods, together with radio play, promoting and film licensing — in contrast with the often-fleeting burst of gross sales from a new report.
Simply final week, Stevie Nicks bought a majority stake in her songwriting that valued the catalog at about $100 million.
Dylan has by no means written pop songs — no Dylan tune has ever topped the important thing Billboard charts — however few songwriters can declare a deeper catalog. In 2004, Rolling Stone included 15 of his works on its listing of the best songs of all time, and positioned “Like a Rolling Stone” on the very high. Solely the Beatles earned extra spots on the listing.
Dylan surged onto the scene within the early Sixties as a folks poet and wrote songs talking out in opposition to the warfare in Vietnam. His transition to electrical guitar and extra of a rock sound in the course of that decade alienated a few of his most ardent followers, but additionally led to a few of his finest work, together with “Freeway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde on Blonde.”
The deal strengthens Common Music Group because it prepares for an preliminary public providing subsequent yr. With its current offers for Taylor Swift and Dylan, Common has added works from two of probably the most profitable songwriters in music historical past.
