Bruce Springsteen is proving once again that he’s ‘The Boss’. Rumor has it, he’s cashing in and selling his entire music catalog to Sony Music and Sony Music Publishing for HALF A BILLION DOLLARS!! Billboard reported the news this week that the sale includes his most successful (and lucrative) albums ‘Born In The USA’ and “The River’.
So what exactly does that mean that Bruce has handed over the publishing rights and usage of his music? It’s actually a very, very big deal. Sony now (in theory) would be able to license out Springsteen’s music for commercial use for anything from a paper towel commercial to a shoe ad (‘Born To Run’ of course comes to mind). As other artists have commented in the past, their songs are like their kids. They created them, nurtured them, watch them grow. And now, they’re selling them and giving up that ownership. I would imagine this was a pretty tough decision for Bruce, as it has been for Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan, Steven Tyler, Neil Young and others who sold their catalogs for millions of dollars. But in some cases, the artist has retained a portion of ownership of their music. Hard to let go. Even Billy Joel has commented in interviews that if he were approached, he would of course consider the offer. He recently told Howard Stern that everything is for sale, especially if that offer would be $1,000,000,000. Can you imagine?!!
Springsteen is already worth $81,000,000, so this is a substantial boost to his bank accounts!
