This is obvious, but Bruce Springsteen has built himself quite the body of work. He’s released 20 albums, nine of which topped the charts in the US. The New Jersey icon is also behind favorites like “Born To Run,” “Dancing In The Dark,” “Hungry Heart,” and so many others. He’s even had Broadway success in recent years with Springsteen On Broadway. Now, in terms of owning his storied catalog, he’s moving on, and he was given a substantial amount of money to do so.
Billboard reports that “in what may be the biggest deal in music for an individual body of work,” Springsteen sold his masters to Sony Music and his music publishing to Sony Music Publishing in a combined deal for about $500 million. Yes, that’s half a billion dollars.
While Springsteen has been actively making music since the ’70s, there’s still a lot of value to his catalog today. Billboard notes that Springsteen’s music has “generated 2.25 million album consumption units” in the US since the start of 2018, and that over the past three years, his master recording catalog has averaged around $12 million in sales, according to estimates. Furthermore, his publishing catalog earns an estimated $7.5 million annually.
This deal sees Springsteen keeping things in the family, as he has recorded for Sony’s Columbia Records for his entire career.