Julian Casablancas sells stake in The Strokes catalogue

nme.com:

The Strokes’ catalogue.According to Rolling Stone, The Strokes frontman has sold a portion of both publishing rights and masters rights to Primary Wave for an undisclosed sum.Primary Wave have not revealed whether Casablancas has retained a portion of his stake.

The sale only includes Casablancas’ rights for The Strokes’ music, not his other projects, a Primary Wave representative told Rolling Stone.Casablancas is the latest musician to have made money in the music copyright sales world.

Earlier this year John Legend sold the rights to his recording catalogue in a big money deal, with the companies KKR and BMG having each acquired a 50 per cent stake in his catalogue for an undisclosed fee.The two companies first came together to purchase the publishing rights and back catalogue of ZZ Top last December, while BMG have also recently acquired the rights to the back catalogues of Mick Fleetwood, Tina Turner and Mötley Crüe.Last year Bob Dylan struck a historical deal with Universal Music to sell his entire songwriting catalogue.

According to The New York Times, the music icon sold his back catalogue for $300 million (£225 million), giving Universal the ownership of over 600 songs spanning a period of almost six decades.It includes career-cementing early classics such as ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, ‘The Times They Are A-Changing’ and ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, all the way through to 2020’s ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’.Meanwhile, The Strokes recently cancelled their headline set at Primavera Sound Festival due to a COVID infection within their camp.The band were due to close the Friday night (June 3) of the festival’s first weekend.