Bob Dylan Sells Entire Back Catalog Worth Around $200m

In the industry’s latest blockbuster music acquisition, Bob Dylan has sold his entire back catalog to Sony Music Entertainment.

Sony Music has acquired the rights to Dylan’s entire recorded body of work in a landmark deal completed last July which includes 39 studio albums that starts with his 1962 self-titled debut album, and continues with 2020’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways”, along with the “multiple future new releases” according to the record company.

The news of the acquisition comes around two years after Dylan sold his songwriting rights in December 2020 to Universal Music Publishing Group, a deal estimated to be worth around $300 million, according to The New York Times.

The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but Billboard magazine estimates that the recordings are worth about $200 million or more, based on the estimated $16 million in global annual revenue and a presumed sale “for a multiple of about 15 to 20 times annual revenue” they generate.

“Columbia Records and [Sony Music Group chairman] Rob Stringer have been nothing but good to me for many, many years and a whole lot of records,”

Dylan said in a statement.

“I’m glad that all my recordings can stay where they belong.”

Dylan and Sony Music have a long history, dating back to October 1961, when he signed with Columbia Records, which is owned by the recording company, and recorded his debut album that same year.

“Columbia Records has had a special relationship with Bob Dylan from the beginning of his career and we are tremendously proud and excited to be continuing to grow and evolve our ongoing 60-year partnership,”

said Stringer in a statement.

“Bob is one of music’s greatest icons and an artist of unrivaled genius.”