According to Music Business Worldwide, Queen's catalog could be the next to be put up for sale. Both Queen’s music publishing and recorded music rights are being shopped and that deal could be in place by the summer, with estimates running in excess of a billion dollars.
That would be will be double the $500 million amount Sony Music Group forked over for Bruce Springsteen in 2021 for his recorded music and music publishing catalogs. Universal Music Group is among those showing interest in the Queen catalog.
Disney Music Group owns the band’s recorded music catalog in North America. They have a global distribution agreement with Universal Music Group.
Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and the estate of the late Freddie Mercury own the global rights to Queen’s music publishing catalog. Queen Productions Ltd., which is equally divided between the band’s four members, and financial filings show it made over $48 million in 2021, with most of that from royalties.
The average annual royalties earned between 2019 and 2021 were close to $63 million. A spokesman for Queen had no comment on this story.
[Source: Classic Hits Today]