1 billion dollars for Queen songs: Sony believes that old music is more profitable than future music.

The purchase of the whole library of the iconic band by Sony sets a new milestone for company acquisitions. On the other hand, he has been doing it for some time now with a variety of musicians.

Sony is quickly becoming the primary purchaser of musical libraries from iconic pop musicians, who are frequently already deceased or from bands that are no longer active. This is accomplished with the stroke of a checkbook, of course. The newest blow is a record: 1.2 billion dollars for the Queen catalog, which includes the masters of the albums, streaming income, and even benefits that may arise from the exploitation of the soundtrack of the 2018 film “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This is a record for the Queen repertoire.

1.2 billion in total. The information has not been officially confirmed, but it has been disseminated by the website Music Business Worldwide, which claims that Sony is in negotiations with the members of Queen as well as the heirs of Freddie Mercury. The particular sum for the sale is derived on information that was provided by a variety of media outlets in February of last year. These outlets claimed that this was the amount that the group was requesting. According to Sony, this would be the most amount that has ever been paid to an artist for her repertoire, a record that the company has broken on multiple occasions in the past.

Everything that is available for purchase. The sale of catalog rights, the subsequent increase in bids and figures, and, finally, the appearance of songs in a variety of commercial purposes have all been things that we have been experiencing over the past couple of years. In certain instances, artists who were not expected to be so adamant about protecting the use of their songs in the past, such as Twisted Sister (who have occasionally vetoed the appearance of their songs in places with which they did not agree politically), Neil Young (who had left Spotify as a matter of principle), and Bob Dylan (who in the sixties stated that his music would not be sold for advertisements, but over the years he betrayed his word on several occasions), protected the use of their songs. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of musical biopics that have been shown in theaters and cinemas. This is not the only viable application from these rights.

Movies have a lot of power. The acquisition of the Queen collection by Sony comes at an opportune moment: in 2016, just eight years ago, the company’s annual profits were 12.34 million pounds. The following year, with all of the film’s exploitation in cinema and television, the income supplied by the catalog amounted to 77.77 million pounds. This was the year that following the release of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which took place in 2018. Since then, the sum has fallen, but there have been no changes; even though it has revalued in comparison to 2016, it is still somewhere around forty million dollars.

I am a fan of the traditional. It is important to determine who has value for Sony, including musicians who have either passed away (Michael Jackson) or are old favorites who hardly ever make new music despite the fact that they continue to perform (Dylan, Springteen, and a couple of members of Queen). The only person who is still active is Kevin Parker, who is the single exception. If we take a look at the list of the catalogs that are in the most demand, we will notice that they are all classified into the same categories:

The influence that the past possesses. Despite the fact that essential essays like ” Retromanía ” have proved that nostalgia is a significant financial and cultural engine for pop music, hardly one is aware of this fact. Since the beginning of the previous decade, the process has accelerated: traditional musicians are being elevated to the status of mythology, while contemporary musicians are leading careers that are becoming increasingly fleeting. This is due to the proliferation of streaming and social networks, as well as the decline of formats such as the long-playing record (LP). very few “real stars” in the traditional sense, such as Taylor Swift. The rules of the past, and Sony, in this particular instance, has been cognizant of this fact when making investments.

The music catalog of the rock band Queen, which includes classics such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, and Another One Bites the Dust, is apparently being discussed by Sony Music about the possibility of purchasing the catalog.

The purchase, which “could potentially total $1 billion” (£790 million), is being worked on by Sony in collaboration with another investor, as reported by Bloomberg. The BBC is aware that negotiations are still taking place and that there is a possibility that they will not result in a sale. In the event that the transaction is finalized, it would encompass Queen’s songs as well as all of the intellectual property that is associated with them. This would include the rights to logos, music videos, merchandise, publishing, and other professional prospects.

Since March of the previous year, discussions on the sale have been taking place. Universal Music is also claimed to have been involved due to the fact that the band has had a long-standing association with the corporation. The band joined with the British label EMI in 1972 and continued to work with the label when it was acquired by Universal in 2011. If the company is able to attain the price tag of one billion dollars, it will be the most significant transaction of its sort, surpassing the $500 million (£393 million) that Sony paid in late 2021 to acquire Bruce Springsteen’s archive.

Earlier in the year, Sony also purchased a fifty percent stake in Michael Jackson’s music from the estate of the late singer, for a price that was at least six hundred million dollars (four hundred and twenty-two million pounds). Queen has 52 million monthly listeners on Spotify, which is far higher than the number of listeners that Jackson and Springsteen have combined. Jackson has 41 million listeners, and Springsteen has 20 million listeners.
This is mostly due to the fact that songs such as Crazy Little Thing Called Love and We Will Rock You continue to be incredibly famous and lucrative all over the world. The success of the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and the band’s continued tours with singer Adam Lambert are other contributing factors.

More than seven million copies of the first volume of Queen’s Greatest Hits have been sold in the United Kingdom, making it the most selling album of all time in that country. In 2023, it was even the twenty-first best-selling album, surpassing even the most successful new albums like Ed Sheeran and the Rolling Stones. According to the most current financial statements that Queen Productions Ltd. has released, the company’s revenue for the fiscal year that ended in September 2022 was $52 million (or £42 million). Guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, bass player John Deacon, and the estate of late singer Freddie Mercury each receive an equal portion of the revenue from the sale of the album.

1 billion dollars for Queen songs: Sony believes that old music is more profitable than future music.

By ki0nk

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