Bob Dylan sells his songwriting catalog in blockbuster deal
On Monday, the Universal Music Publishing Group announced that it had signed a landmark deal to purchase Bob Dylan’s entire songwriting catalog — including classics such as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Like a Rolling Stone” — in what might be the biggest acquisition ever of the music publishing rights of a single songwriter.
The deal, which covers Dylan’s entire career, from his earliest tunes to his latest album, “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” was struck directly with Dylan, 79, who has long controlled the vast majority of his own songwriting copyrights.
The price was not disclosed but is estimated at more than $300 million.
“It’s no secret that the art of songwriting is the fundamental key to all great music nor is it a secret that Bob is one of the very greatest practitioners of that art,” Lucian Grainge, chief executive of the Universal Music Group, said.
The deal is the latest and most high profile in this year’s buzzing market for music catalogs, as artists both young and old have sold their songs, while publishers and investors have raised billions of dollars from both public and private sources to persuade writers to part with their creations.
Since Universal now controls his work, Dylan will no longer have veto power over how his songs will be used.
Still, Universal insisted it would be tasteful in its use of Dylan’s work.
Dylan’s deal includes 100% of his rights for all the songs of his catalog, including both the income he receives as a songwriter and his control of each song’s copyright. In exchange for its payment to Dylan, Universal, a division of French media conglomerate Vivendi, will collect all future income from the songs.
Dylan had no comment on the deal.
With the exception of his original Leeds Music deal — which included seven songs, among them “Song for Woody” and “Talkin’ New York” — Dylan eventually took full control of all his copyrights from those catalogs; Leeds was sold in 1964 to MCA, which became Universal.
But the agreement does not include any of Dylan’s unreleased songs. It also doesn’t cover any work that Dylan writes in the future.