The sale of the rights to Michael Jackson's music is expected to break all records.
The administrators of Michael Jackson's estate are in the process of selling half of their rights to the legendary singer's music catalog for an amount that will range between $800 million and $900 million, three sources confirmed to Variety.
While further details are unclear, sources say Sony and a potential financial partner are negotiating to acquire 50% of the publishing rights and revenue from Michael Jackson's recorded music, the show 'MJ: The Musical ” on Broadway and the upcoming biopic “Michael,” and possibly other properties as well.
If the sale goes through, it will be the biggest deal to date in the music catalog market.
A financial source tells Variety that Primary Wave Music already owns a stake in Michael Jackson's publishing catalog, though details have not been disclosed.
Sony Music has moved on to some of its biggest past catalog acquisition deals.
In late 2021. acquired Bruce Springsteen's catalogs of publications and recorded music for a total price that, according to sources, amounted to about $600 million.
Sources say Sony Music also paid $150 million to $200 million for the rights to Bob Dylan's catalog of recorded music, after the legendary songwriter sold his publishing rights to Universal Music for nearly $400 million.
Such mammoth deals have become common in recent years, but if the reports are correct, the deal for Michael Jackson's catalog will be by far the most expensive to date.
The sources did not confirm the financial partner involved in the deal, and it remains unclear if anyone is definitely involved, but possible interested parties would include Eldridge Industries, which worked with Sony Music on the deal for Bruce Springsteen's catalog and also acquired the publishing catalog of The Killers until 2020.
The deal could also involve Shamrock, which recently partnered with Universal Music to acquire Dr. Dre worth $200 million and in 2020 acquired the rights to Taylor Swift's first six albums from a consortium led by Scooter Braun.
Sony Music and predecessor CBS was the exclusive roof of Michael Jackson's discography for his entire solo career and the final years of his career with the Jackson 5. After Michael Jackson's death in 2009 at the age of 50, the huge his entertainment fortune was handled steadily by John Branca, his longtime attorney, and John McClain.
Michael Jackson's discography is one of the most profitable in history. His 1982 album 'Thriller' alone is one of the two highest selling albums of all time and was the first album to go 30 times platinum.
In 2016 Sony Corp. reached a $750 million deal with Michael Jackson's estate administrators to acquire a 50% stake in their Sony/ATV Music Publishing joint venture, which they had founded in 1995.
In 2018, Sony revealed in a disclosure that as part of its $2.3 billion takeover of EMI Music Publishing, it acquired Michael Jackson's 25.1% stake in the company for $287.5 million. dollars.
At the end of this multi-year process, which had started six years earlier but was approved by the European Union only in 2018, EMI and Sony/ATV were wholly owned by Sony, which thus became the sole owner of the world's largest music publishing company .
