Negotiations on the terms of acquiring the rights are still ongoing.
Sony Music, the American multinational company, is in talks to purchase the music catalog of the British rock band Queen for one billion dollars. This information comes from TASR, based on Thursday’s reports from BBC News and Sky News.
According to Bloomberg, Sony is working on the deal with another investor. If the agreement is finalized, it will cover Queen’s songs and all related intellectual property, including rights to logos, music videos, merchandise, publishing, and other business opportunities. The negotiations, which started last year, might not lead to a deal, but if they do, it would be the largest transaction of its kind.
Queen remains globally successful
The deal is complicated by the fact that Disney Music Group owns the rights to Queen’s music catalog in North America. The band retains rights for the rest of the world and holds global publishing rights – copyrights to music and lyrics.
Queen is one of the most commercially successful bands in history, still earning tens of millions of dollars annually. Profits are equally divided among the three surviving members – guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, bassist John Deacon, and the estate of the late singer Freddie Mercury.
This success is partly due to the biographical film “Bohemian Rhapsody” from 2018 and the band’s ongoing tours with singer Adam Lambert, but mainly because their songs remain globally popular and highly lucrative. Freddie Mercury died from AIDS-related complications in 1991.
The sale of music rights has become big business in recent years. Record labels and private equity firms have acquired rights to the works of stars like David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Sting, Shakira, and Beyoncé. The timeless nature of hits means investors offer large sums for the rights, enticing artists to exchange their royalties for a significant one-time payout. Music rights are seen as an attractive investment because songs generate revenue even decades later.
These deals provide artists and their estates with immediate financial security, while rights holders hope to gain new income sources from music through film and TV licenses, advertising, covers, and royalties.
