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Since the onset of the health crisis, online music listening has grown steadily. Another phenomenon linked to the pandemic is the sale of artists’ catalogs, sometimes during their lifetime, sometimes after their death, as was the case for David Bowie a few days ago. Why are they embarking on such operations?
In the midst of a pandemic, artists and their record companies have discovered a gold mine: the sale of their catalogs. The heirs of David Bowie, who died in 2016, ceded all of their rights to Warner Music, pocketing 220 million euros. As for Bruce Springsteen, it is to Sony Music that he decided to sell his rights, for the staggering sum of 440 million euros. Ditto for Bob Dylan, who sold his entire work to Universal Music, for a sum that remained confidential.
Among the motivations of artists, there is sometimes compensation for a loss of income linked to the cancellation of concerts in the midst of Covid-19. Beyond the health crisis, fiscal reasons are also at play. “There is a patrimonial logic to sell a good of this type, a capital of this type before his death, rather than leaving it and that it be integrated in the inheritance tax.“, explains Jean-Philippe Thiellay, president of the National Music Center.