Two years in the past, MBW ran a preferred story with an attention-grabbing headline: “Queen’s music is making loopy cash. Might it’s value over a billion {dollars}?”
The reply to the query, we now hear from a number of high-level music business sources, is a powerful sure.
We’re informed that the preliminary levels of a sale course of for the band’s catalog – combining each music publishing and recorded music rights – is underway, and {that a} full acquisition could possibly be accomplished by the top of this summer season.
Main music firms together with Common Music Group have been in discussions concerning a possible acquisition, we’re informed, along with gamers from the world of personal fairness.
If the mixed Queen rights promote, say MBW’s sources, a price-tag in extra of USD $1 billion appears assured.
Some have informed us they count on the Queen catalog to promote for round USD $1.1 billion; others say the eventual determine will probably be even greater than that.
Both means, ought to a sale get accomplished, this may turn out to be the most important single-artist music catalog sale in historical past, simply surpassing the $500 million-plus paid by Sony Music Group to amass Bruce Springsteen’s recorded music and music publishing catalogs in late 2021.
(For the Springsteen publishing catalog a part of that deal, Sony‘s provide was partly backed by capital from Eldridge Industries.)
A Queen catalog sale is difficult by the truth that Disney Music Group (DMG) owns the band’s recorded music catalog in North America. (DMG has a world distribution settlement with Common Music Group.)
Queen band members Brian Might, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon – plus the Freddie Mercury property – every personal equal shares within the firm Queen Productions Ltd, which owns the group’s recording catalog outdoors the US and Canada.
Queen’s members (plus Mercury’s property) additionally personal the worldwide rights to Queen’s music publishing catalog through their firm Queen Music Ltd, which is run by Sony Music Publishing.
Queen Productions Ltd posts its annual financials on UK Corporations Home, the newest of which exhibits the corporate’s fiscal efficiency in FY 2021 (to the top of September that yr).
Queen Productions Ltd reported GBP £39.19 million in annual revenues in FY 2021, with £38.92 million of this quantity coming through royalties.
Queen Productions Ltd. posted record-high annual revenues of GBP £72.77 million in FY 2019, the yr of the profitable world launch of the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic.
Within the three years from 2019 by means of 2021, the common annual royalties income booked by Queen Productions Ltd was GBP £50.71 million.
Queen is presently the forty eighth hottest artist globally on Spotify, with 47.7 million month-to-month listeners on the platform.
Queen’s isn’t the one huge-money music rights catalog that’s in discussions to be offered (or half offered) within the months forward.
The Michael Jackson Property is known to be in discussions with Sony Music Group over the sale of a stake within the late King Of Pop’s rights portfolio – spanning recorded music rights, rights linked to the MJ: The Musical theater present, plus music publishing rights through the Jackson-founded music publishing firm, Mijac.
Selection reported in February that Sony Music Group was in negotiations to amass 50% of Jackson’s music rights for a price-tag within the area of $800 to $900 million.
A supply near that course of has urged that the quantity might find yourself barely decrease than that determine, at between $700 million and $800 million.Music Enterprise Worldwide
