During an appearance on the latest episode of the “Let There Be Talk” podcast with rock and roll comedian Dean Delray, BUSH frontman Gavin Rossdale was asked whether he would ever sell the publishing rights to the songs he has written with his various projects over the past four decades. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET: “Yeah, I get offered it every couple of bit of time, I get offered. And so the other time, last time I suddenly was, like, all I kept on thinking was, if they wanna offer me that much money, what’s the invisible bit that I’m not seeing? What’s the subtext that also in brackets, ”Cause he’s an idiot. Cause they’re an idiot.’ It’s in brackets: ”Cause they’re an idiot.’ Because it’s just a multiple of what you’re gonna make, and then you don’t make it, and then they continue to make it.”
Gavin continued: “The funny thing about life is, here we are at this point in our lives, people are gonna have sold it and then get to the point where that year, they don’t get anything from it, and a big corporation is getting it from that. And none of the beneficiaries, none of the people you’re responsible for are gonna get it. It’s just the end of that road. And so it’s a psychologically weird thing. You’ve gotta really tap out. So I really made it easy. I actually found a house in Malibu I loved. I asked my manager, business manager, to do all the math, like property tax insurance, a good income, fucking 25 years I don’t have to think about this house. What would that cost me? And he came back with a number. And so I went back to the company [that made the offer]. I was, like, ‘Listen, I thank you for that. But actually I need about that much more. So I’d have to continue writing songs. If you can pay me that, I’m all in.’ [Laughs] So, that’s what I did. I was, like, ‘Fuck it.'”
Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young are some of the iconic musicians who have recently sold off substantial rights to their music, whether it’s just for publishing or the original recordings, known as masters. Investors, major music companies and private equity firms have poured billions of dollars into buying song catalogs, believing that the rise of streaming and growing music revenues will make song rights acquisitions highly lucrative in the long term as they can be exploited for up to 70 years after a musician’s death.
When musicians sell their songwriting catalogs, they take a lump sum now, rather than counting on royalties from their music on whatever platform might be most popular in a few decades.
Three years ago, Dylan sold the rights to all of his recorded music since 1962 to Sony Music Entertainment for a reported $200 million. Dylan had previously sold the songwriting portion of his catalog — which include music and lyrics — to Universal Music Publishing Group for a reported $300 million. In 2021, Nicks sold her portion of publishing rights to her songs to Primary Wave for a reported $100 million. That same year, Springsteen reportedly sold his catalog to Sony for more than $500 million.
“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,” Hannah Karp, editorial director at Billboard, told CNN in January 2022.
This past April, it was announced that KISS had sold its catalog, brand name and IP to Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment Group in a deal estimated to be over $300 million.
