Sony Music will acquire Queen Catalog for £1 billion

(Photo by Michael Butland/Getty Images)

Queen’s music catalog, along with a number of other rights, is in the process of being acquired by Sony Music for £1 billion (about $1.27 billion), two sources have confirmed to diverse. The news was first published by Visits; According to their report, the only revenue not included in the deal is live performances, which will be retained by founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor, who are still actively touring with singer Adam Lambert.

Another player was said to have been very close to bidding, but stopped at $900 million.

Catalog, which has been in play for several years and Slowly towards Sony Over the past few months, he has been part of a complex deal under which the US and Canadian rights to the group’s recorded music, which Disney acquired sometime in the 2000s after an initial $10 million licensing deal struck in 1991, will be released. will remain with Disney forever, although some of the band members’ remaining royalties will go to Sony once the deal closes. Likewise, the group’s distribution deal, currently in place with Universal, will go to Sony in all territories outside the US and Canada when it expires in the next two years.

Representatives for Sony Music, Sony Music Publishing, Disney’s Hollywood Records and the group declined or did not immediately respond diverseRequests for comment. However, in Sony’s case, this is not surprising since the company rarely comments on its catalog acquisitions and its nine-figure deals for the copyrights and recorded music of Bruce Springsteen, and the rights to the recorded music of Bob Dylan, have never been officially confirmed, but have become common knowledge in the industry. .

Queen’s music catalog is among the most valuable of the rock era – featuring classics like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Radio Ga Ga,” “39,” and “Somebody to Love.” and “You’re My”. “Best Friend”, as well as the enduring hits “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions”, are globally popular and highly profitable. The success of the 2018 biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” shows the potential for the group to acquire the rights to the name and format, and potentially stage a musical in London or on Broadway and then tour indefinitely.

Queen was founded in London in 1970 by May and Taylor – who had previously played together in a group called Smile – and were joined by Freddie Mercury on vocals and piano, and the following year, John Deacon on bass. The group initially passed by several record labels before the group struck a deal with EMI, releasing their self-titled debut album, which included May’s hit “Keep Yourself Alive”.

While the group had major successes in the United Kingdom over the next two years with their singles “Seven Seas of Rhye” and “Killer Queen,” their international breakthrough came in 1975 with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a minor symphony composed by Mercury that became a major hit on the world. The longest and most bizarre single ever.

The group quickly became one of the biggest bands in the world, with each member scoring a No. 1 hit over the next decade: alongside Mercury’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” there was May’s “We Will Rock You” in 1977, and “Another One.” “For Deacon. “Bites the Dust” in 1980 and Taylor’s “Radio Ga Ga” in 1984. Although they never quite dominated the US over other territories, the group played stadiums all over the world and for several years maintained the record To attend at all. One concert with their 1985 performance at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil. However, Mercury contracted AIDS and died of complications from the disease in 1991.

Queen’s legacy has not only endured, but grown over the years, with their songs still widely played on the radio and at sporting events – “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” are stadium staples – as May and Taylor, now in their mid-seventies, continued to tour under the group’s name.