Sony Music Group reportedly purchased, at the end of last year, half of the "King of Pop"'s catalog of copyrights and recordings for around $600 million.
This transaction, according to the Billboard website, would value the catalog of the most successful artist of all time fifteen years after his death between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion dollars.
Unheard of in the world of music.
Last February, the Variety site revealed the first negotiations around this agreement.
According to figures, the estate of the “pop icon” brought in approximately $75 million per year at the time of his death, including $47.2 million per year for his recordings.
But Jackson's notoriety and popularity over the past 15 years do not seem to be slowing down.
On the contrary, sales and streams of Jackson's music have increased steadily, from 1.07 million album-equivalent units in 2020 to 1.47 million in 2023, an increase of 37% over those three years. , according to the Luminate website.
Outside the United States, Jackson is arguably even more popular.
In 2023, consumption of its music increased by 38.3% to reach 6.5 billion on-demand streams, compared to 4.7 billion streams in 2021.
Springsteen, Dylan too
And that's without counting the release probably in September 2024 of a biopic entitled Michael, which should happily put Jackson back in the spotlight and stimulate the consumption of his titles.
According to Les Échos, musical rights for stars who have proven themselves are increasingly becoming a fierce competition for millions of dollars.
At the end of 2021, Sony Music bought all of Bruce Springsteen's music rights for $500 million and those of Bob Dylan for around $200 million.
According to Goldman Sachs, the music market is expected to grow by almost 9% per year until 2030, notably thanks to streaming, which will double in value to become a global market worth $41 billion in 2030. A perspective that makes the eyes of large investment funds like Blackstone or Hipgnosis which drive up the prices of record companies.