As the world continues to evolve, the music business is not left behind as artists are finding new ways to generate revenue to support their art and secure their finances everyday. In light of this, several famous artists have sold their publishing in mouth watering deals that have elicited quite a response from fans and music lovers around the world. Music publishing is a fairly complicated subject but it essentially refers to the business of monetising music compositions and creating opportunities to generate revenue through these compositions. Music publishers distribute the work of these artists as well as get placements on ads, movies and pretty much anything that can generate income using the music and the follow up to ensure that the artist is paid royalties for the use of their work. Music publishing generates passive income for artists that can be useful over the years depending on the level of success of the musical composition.
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Today’s artists seem to be selling their back catalogs as a form of retirement fund, the lump sum generated from the sale of these catalogs can be invested into business eandevours as well as provide financial security for the artists. Justin briber sold his entire back catalog for 200 million dollars to a publishing company, he still retains his masters but the publishing rights have been passed to the company who bought the catalog who in turn can now begin to exploit the publishing rights in a way that not only helps them recoup their investment on the purchase but generates interest as well as provide exposure for the artist without the artist needing to make any further effort as far as marketing those musical compositions is concerned. D.r Dre is another artist who sold off his back catalog for over 200 million dollars, reports suggest that his catalog generated ten million dollars annually. With the sale of his publishing he gets downright payment of about twenty years of publishing whilst retaining the rights to his masters. Micheal Jacksons estate is allegedly considering some of the legends music catalog in a deal which is rumoured to be around 900 million dollars. This would mean a huge cash infusion for his estate which would allow them to invest in other ventures that would grow the estate as well as create opportunities to expose the king of pops music to the newer generation once the purchasing company begins to exploit the newly acquired publishing rights. I hope this article has helped with a clearer picture of why artists are selling off their publishing or at least opened your mind to the boundless opportunities that abound in the music business…it’s not all fun and games. It is a multi billion dollar business that constantly changes the lives of all who enter with their eyes wide open.