Justin Bieber has sold his share of the rights to his music to Hipgnosis Songs Capital for a reported $200m (£162m).Justin Bieber sells rights to songs for $200m.
The firm now owns the pop star’s stake in some of the biggest hits of recent years, including Baby and Sorry.
Bieber, one of the best-selling artists of the 21st Century, joins a growing group of artists who have cashed out on their catalogues.
The move means Hipgnosis will receive a payment every time a song it owns is streamed or used on radio, TV or film.
The company – a $1bn venture between financial giant Blackstone and the British Hipgnosis Song Management – acquired Bieber’s publishing copyrights to his 290-song back catalogue.
It has also acquired his share in the original master recordings of his songs.That includes all of his music released before 31 December 2021.
Hipgnosis has not disclosed the terms of the deal, but a source told the news agency AFP it was worth around $200m.
Artists are increasingly selling stakes in their work to music funds – including Justin Timberlake and Leonard Cohen, who have also struck deals with Hipgnosis Songs Capital.
The trend is more common among older artists. In the last two years, music legends Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen both sold back catalogue rights to Sony.Springsteen received a reported $500m (£376m) for the sale of his life’s work.
Hipgnosis Songs Capital is separate entity to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which has also been building up a catalogue of classic hits and inviting big institutional investors to share in the proceeds.
The fund floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2018, while Hipgnosis Songs Capital is a private company.
The man behind both companies is Merck Mercuriadis, who has claimed hit songs can be “more valuable than gold or oil”.
He said Bieber’s music was “arguably the definitive soundtrack of the streaming revolution”, with 13 songs that have each achieved more than a billion streams on platforms like YouTube and Spotify.
