The investment fund, Hipgnosis, has managed to catch Justin Bieber in its net, already well filled with artists like Leonard Cohen and his famous Hallelujah, Shakira or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The spokesman for Hipgnosis said “to have acquired Justin Bieber’s entire share of his publishing rights (including the author’s share of the performance), master recordings and related rights for his entire catalog”.
Justin Bieber’s music catalog includes more than 290 tracks released before December 31, 2021, including his biggest hits Baby, Sorry and Love Yourself, which Hipgnosis will now receive the rights to when the songs are released.
The press talks about a sum of about 200 million USD in December, confirmed Tuesday 24 January by a source close to the case.
However, other sources say that Universal will continue to administer the catalog of the singer, whose six albums have been certified platinum (one million sold) or multi-platinum (several million), from My World 2.0 in 2010 to Justice in 2021. The music industry giant also retains ownership of the tracks’ recording rights (or master rights), the same source said.
Hipgnosis CEO Merck Mercuriadis is delighted with the deal and said, “Justin Bieber’s impact on global culture over the past 14 years has been exceptional.
Justin Bieber has over 30 billion listens on Spotify.
The company Hipgnosis has achieved this with funds from the financial management company Blackstone, which promised at the end of 2021 to bring one billion USD to Hipgnosis for these investments. Financial sharks always swim together.
The star, Justin Bieber, is the latest, and one of the youngest, to sell his catalog, following a trend that is now well established. With the streaming revolution, the rights to songs by artists who are dead or alive, but deemed timeless, have become valuable assets.
There are other ways to monetize besides music streaming, with companies like Hipgnosis also monetizing their catalog on newer platforms like TikTok or Roblox.
In the past, Tina Turner, Neil Young or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others, had already made such operations.
The star of the song, Justin Bieber, was tired, and he had a difficult year in 2022 because of health problems. He had to cancel part of his tour in June because of the rare Ramsay Hunt syndrome paralyzing one side of his face. After returning to the stage, he had again announced that he had to stop in September.
He said, “I’ll be fine, but I need time to rest and get better,
This tendency to sell their musical repertoire to companies tempted by speculation is not unanimous.
The singer, Taylor Swift, has had resounding success with new versions of her old albums that she re-recorded to control the rights.
A war had pitted her against artist manager Scooter Braun, who got his hands on her repertoire by buying Big Machine Records, then sold the rights to another company. Braun is also the manager of Justin Bieber, whom he represented in the transaction with Hipgnosis.
Comment here