Michael Jackson’s music is still making his estate and partners money nearly 15 years after his death.
Recently, Sony Music bought a stake in Michael Jackson’s music catalog, which has valued his music rights at over $1.2 Billion dollars with a capital B!
The deal with Sony Music cost the company an estimated $600 million dollars, but they picked up half of Michael Jackson’s publishing rights and recorded masters catalog for the price.
This represents the largest valuation ever of a musician’s music assets, and that is saying a lot.
The music world has been busy in the last few years with high profile musicians selling their music catalogs for some eye popping prices.
In September of 2023 Katy Perry sold master recording royalties and music publishing rights to her first five albums to Litmus Music in a deal reportedly worth $225 million.
In 2021 Bruce Springsteen sold his entire recorded music and publishing catalog to Sony Music for $500 million.
In January of 2023 Justin Bieber sold 100% percent of his publishing and artist royalties from his master recordings and neighboring rights on 290 of his songs up to December 31, 2021, for around $200 million.
In December of 2020 Bob Dylan sold his entire catalog of 600 songs to Universal Music for somewhere between $300 and $400 million (an exact figure isn’t available, but that’s the scuttlebut around the interwebs). That was for the rights to his lyrics and compositions. Then in 2022 Bob Dylan sold his entire back catalog of recorded music to Sony Music Entertainment in a deal worth between $150 and $200 million.
Pretty savvy move by Bob Dylan.
Michael Jackson Estate Sells Music Rights to Sony at $1.2B Valuation