(ANSA) - NEW YORK, APRIL 01 - Paul Simon has sold his entire music catalog to Sony, the latest artist of his generation after Bob Dylan and Neil Young, while Dolly Parton is still thinking of doing so: over 60 years songs, from the time of the duo Simon & Garfunkel to the subsequent period as a solo singer, are at the center of the monumental agreement that Simon and Sony himself reported.
"I started my career at Columbia / Sony Records and it seems like a natural extension to work with the publishing division. I'm happy they are the keepers of my songs for decades to come."
For Sony Publishing, whose CEO Jon Platt spoke of "an incredible honor", the agreement is particularly important: the publishing division, which represents among the other Motown, Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Carole King, StevieWonder, Queen, and Leonard Cohen, It is the largest in the world, but recently lost important pieces including music by TaylorSwift who had contracted as a teen-ager, but moved to Universal Music a year ago.
The terms of the deal with Simon have not been disclosed, but they should be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The database of Bmi, the organization for the rights of the author of the artists of the show to which the singer is affiliated, has over 400 songs under his name, including some that have been the soundtrack in the last half century, from "Sound of Silence. ", to" Bridge over Troubled Water "," Mrs. Robinson "," Laureato "," Still Crazy after All These Years "and" Graceland ", inspired by South African street music: the song of the great comeback after the musical break with the childhood friend Garfunkel and divorce from actress Carrie Fisher.
Awarded 16 times with a Grammy, Paul Simon will turn 80 in October and three years ago, when the curtain fell on the farewell "Homeward Bound" tour, he stopped touring even though in 2019 he exceptionally appeared on stage in San Francisco.
The deal is part of a trend: Dylan, Young, Stevie Nicks and MickFleetwood, the founder of Fleetwood Mac, have recently sold their catalogs in exchange for fabulous sums.
(HANDLE).