Bob Dylan sells Recorded-Music Catalog to Sony Music
View(s):Sony Music Entertainment today announced it has fully acquired Bob Dylan’s entire back catalog of recorded music, as well as the rights to multiple future new releases, in a major expansion of SME’s six-decade relationship with the artist.
Sources tell Variety that the deal was worth between $150 million and $200 million, although the number was not confirmed; reps for Sony and Dylan declined comment.
This agreement, concluded in July 2021, comprises the entirety of Bob Dylan’s recorded body of work since 1962, beginning with the artist’s self-titled debut album and continuing through 2020’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways.”
Late in 2020 Dylan sold his song catalog to Universal Music Publishing for an amount sources say was near $400 million; he also donated his personal archives to the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla., which is scheduled to open in May of this year.
The deal is the latest in a series of blockbuster deals for music catalogs. Bruce Springsteen sold his publishing and recorded-music catalogs to Sony Music for a reported $550 million; David Bowie’s publishing was acquired by Warner Chappell Music earlier this year for upward of $250 million, sources tell Variety; Motley Crue’s recorded-music catalog was acquired by BMG late in November 2021 for around $90 million.
Bob Dylan and SME will continue to collaborate on a range of future catalog reissues in the artist’s renowned and top-selling Bootleg Series, which began in 1991 and includes 14 releases through last year’s lauded “Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985).” The agreement also provides the opportunity for SME to partner with Dylan on additional projects.
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