Universal Music has acquired Bob Dylan’s entire publishing catalogue in a nine-figure deal, the latest marker of the soaring valuation of music rights in the streaming era.
The deal, which spans six decades of hits such as “Blowin’ In The Wind,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” valued the catalogue in the hundreds of millions. Universal, the world’s largest music label, called the deal the “most significant music publishing agreement this century”, but declined to disclose the price.
Mr Dylan, whose acclaimed songwriting won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, did not formally shop around his catalogue. Rather, the renowned singer-songwriter had been in talks with Jody Gerson, chief executive of Universal Music’s publishing arm, for years, according to people close to the situation.