7th December, 2020
Nobel Literature Laureate Bob Dylan has sold his entire catalogue of songs to Universal Music Publishing Group.
Variety described the deal worth over $100million as a blockbuster agreement encompassing more than 600 copyrights spanning 60 years.
The songs ranged from 1962’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” to this year’s “Murder Most Foul.”
Dylan’s catalog was previously administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
Terms were not disclosed, but a source tells Variety that the deal was easily in nine figures.
Since 80% of Stevie Nicks’ publishing catalog was acquired by Primary Wave last week for a reported $100 million, the Dylan catalog probably drew a number well above that.
The influence and impact of Dylan’s songs cannot be overstated: In 2016, he was the first songwriter to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, cited by the Swedish Academy “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
His songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times over the past six decades, by a vast array of artists all across the world, particularly songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Like A Rolling Stone,” “Lay Lady Lay,” “Forever Young,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” “Tangled Up In Blue,” “Gotta Serve Somebody,” the Academy Award-winning “Things Have Changed” and so many more.
Since the release of his first album in 1961, Dylan, 79, has sold more than 125 million records around the world, and, although sidelined by the pandemic, he has toured relentlessly since 1988, performing more than a hundred shows each year since.