Bob Dylan has sold his entire catalogue of recorded music to Sony Music for an undisclosed sum
“I’m glad that all my recordings can stay where they belong,” says the 80-year-old musician.
Image: AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo
Sony Music announced on Monday that it has acquired the entire recorded music catalogue of Bob Dylan, as well as the rights to “multiple future new releases”, in a major expansion of the firm’s six-decade relationship with the artist.
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The deal, which concluded in July 2021, comprises the entirety of Dylan’s recorded body of work since 1962 beginning with the artist’s self-titled debut album and continuing through his 39th studio album, 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways. Both parties also said they will continue to collaborate on a range of future catalogue reissues in the artist’s top-selling “Bootleg Series”.
Financial details of the sale were not disclosed, though Variety cited sources who valued it at $150 million to $200 million. The deal does not include the rights to Dylan’s songwriting catalogue, which was sold to Universal Music Group in December 2020 for more than $300 million, making it one of the largest sales of its kind.
Bob Dylan said in a statement announcing the sale: “Columbia Records and Rob Stringer [chairman of Sony Music Group] have been nothing but good to me for many, many years and a whole lot of records. I’m glad that all my recordings can stay where they belong.”
The past few years have seen a number of music legends cashing in on their recording and publishing catalogues amid growing Wall Street interest in music as an “alternative investment”. Sony Music made headlines last month following a $500 million acquisition of Columbia icon Bruce Springsteen’s song and recording catalogues.
