Primary Wave Adds Sarah McLachlan to Music Catalog Roster Alongside Bob Marley, Whitney Houston
thewrap.comJustin Bieber sold his catalog to Hipgnosis for $200 million, the largest deal for any artist in his generation. McLaughlan most certainly received less than the $500 million Bruce Springsteen pocketed in his catalog sale to Sony, but the deal nevertheless reflects the continued appetite for music rights.The flood of sales reflects wholesale changes in the music industry that make it more difficult for performers to earn from releasing recordings amid the shift to streaming.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s shutdown of live music performance hastened the decisions by artists to lock in the value of their work, which is in high demand for a range of advertising, streaming and other deals.Primary Wave boasts a roster of catalogs that includes music legends like Bob Marley, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Ray Charles, Stevie Nicks, Joey Ramone, Burt Bararach, Smokey Robinson and even iconic crooner Bing Crosby.
It also holds half the Prince estate and the Sun Records catalog. It backed the Houston biopic, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” last year and has a docuseries on Brown, “Say It Loud,” in the works.Last year, Primary Wave entered a $2 billion partnership with Canadian mega-investment firm Brookfield Asset Management to back additional catalog investments. “Increasing demand for content from streaming services and social media make iconic music IP a scarce and irreplaceable asset,” Angelo Rufino, a managing partner at Brookfield, said at the time, pointing toward licensing for services from Peloton to TikTok.
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