from Hacker News

Bob Dylan Sells Entire Catalog of Songs to Universal Music Publishing

by stigi on 12/7/20, 12:08 PM with 119 comments

• by blakesterz on 12/7/20, 4:59 PM

  Wow, apparently that's some BIG money:

  "Terms were not disclosed, but a source tells Variety that the deal was easily in nine figures. Since 80% of Stevie Nicks’ publishing catalog was acquired by Primary Wave last week for a reported $100 million, the Dylan catalog probably drew a number well above that."

  I read that Imagine Dragons sold all their songs for over $100 million as well. ( https://variety.com/2020/music/news/imagine-dragons-publishi... )

• by Mediterraneo10 on 12/7/20, 5:24 PM

  One wonders if he and his family felt it was better to sell now than later, because for all Dylan’s recognized greatness as a songwriter now, popular tastes can drastically change, especially now that guitar-based music is being eclipsed. There has been a lot of discussion recently about how young people’s familiarity with Elvis or even the Beatles is dwindling, and Dylan’s most acclaimed work was recorded in the same era as them.

• by cwkoss on 12/7/20, 7:45 PM

  Hey, Mr. Licensing Man

  Rent a song to me

  It's your IP

  And culture isn't free no more

  (Fun fact: Bob Dylan's prolific songwriting career was started by playing "open source" music)

• by CSMastermind on 12/7/20, 5:39 PM

  This is just another example of the need for intellectual property reform. Ideally all of his songs would be public domain by now.

• by okareaman on 12/8/20, 4:18 PM

      How many clothes must a person wash?   
      Before you call them grown up   
      How many socks must they lose?   
      Before they aren't a child   
      The answer my friend   
      is Downy Fabric Softener

• by 101008 on 12/7/20, 6:12 PM

  The subreddit for Bob Dylan made some interesting comments on this, you can follow the discussion here https://www.reddit.com/r/bobdylan/comments/k8fj42/bob_dylan_...

• by hluska on 12/7/20, 5:23 PM

  I wonder if this is a sign that the neverending tour is coming to an end. I saw Dylan play for the third time a few years ago and I had a strong sense it was the last time I would ever see him play live.

• by WarOnPrivacy on 12/7/20, 5:08 PM

  One reasonable take is that Dylan feels consolidated corporate gatekeepers can't have too much power.

• by harel on 12/7/20, 6:41 PM

  The artist is now known as Bob's Dealing.

• by NikolaeVarius on 12/7/20, 5:23 PM

  I didnt even know he was still alive