Bruce Springsteen Sells His Masters, Publishing Catalog to Sony for $500 Million

Bruce Springsteen has sold the masters of his entire catalog to Sony Music and the coinciding music publishing rights to Sony Music Publishing in a combined deal of around $500 million, Billboard reports. Springsteen’s catalog includes over 300 songs, 20 studio albums, 23 live LPs, 7 EPs, and more. 

For his entire 50-year-long career, Springsteen has released his albums through Sony imprint Columbia Records. He was granted ownership of his earlier records in the late 1980s and 1990s as an incentive to re-sign with the label. Last month, Springsteen was in negotiations with Sony to sell his album catalog while he also simultaneously shopped around his publishing catalog, which was under Universal Music Publishing Group, according to Billboard.

This deal arrives one year after Universal Music Publishing Group purchased Bob Dylan’s extensive publishing catalog for more than $300 million. In 2019, the master rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums were sold for over $300 million as well.