How Queen Sold Their Music Catalog for a Whopping $1.27 Billion

Selling music catalogs has seemingly become the new norm for classic rock bands. It’s lucrative for both the buyer and seller and in a musical sense, a way to preserve the longevity of some of pop culture’s greatest bands. Thanks to the benefits of these deals, artists and bands such as Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, and Stevie Nicks have all sold their music catalogs. However, one band that stands above the rest regarding these types of purchases is Queen.

Just this past June, Queen and Sony Music made an unprecedented deal. Former deals of this nature typically cap at around the mid-100 million dollar mark. Queen and Sony Music well exceeded that mark, as the record label bought the iconic band’s catalog for $1.27 billion, per Rolling Stone. How they settled upon this number is not entirely clear, but the acquisition entailed bidding wars and convoluted discussions regarding distribution and music rights.

Disney, Universal, and $900 Million

Before Sony purchased Queen’s catalog, Disney and Universal both had a grasp on the British band’s music. Disney owns Queen’s recorded music rights in both Canada and the United States, which were purchased sometime in the ‘2000s for an unknown price. This deal came after an initial licensing purchase in 1991 for a sum of $10 million. That being so, Sony was not able to acquire this portion of Queen’s catalog, as those rights remain with Disney indefinitely.

One company Sony was able to overtake was Universal. Matter of fact, Universal still owns the distribution rights to all of Queen’s music. However, Sony and Universal were able to work out a deal that entails a transfer of the distribution rights when Universal’s ownership expires sometime in 2026 or 2027 according to Variety. The specifics of that deal are unknown to the general public.

Before any of this transpired, there was a bidding war that seemingly went on for months leading up to Sony’s purchase. Also according to Variety, an undisclosed company offered the group $900 million for their catalog. Though, Sony Music was able to reach deep into their pockets and pull out the extra $370 million to buy the catalog. To this day, that second bidder remains hidden from the public.

How Queen Achieved This Number

When talking about the intellectual value of something it is hard to truly gauge given the subjective nature of the product in question. In Queen’s case, there was reportedly one booming factor that led to the purchasing of the catalog—The 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody. Besides absolutely crushing the 2018 and 2019 awards season, particularly with their three Oscar wins, the film grossed $910 million worldwide. Needless to say, this stat gave Sony a ballpark estimate of just how much their catalog was truly worth.

Lastly, Queen is Queen, they are surely one of the top five most successful bands of all time. Thus, the relevancy of their music will only strengthen and never weaken. Especially now, as with Sony’s purchase, the music will surely be repurposed in ways no one could even imagine and live on much longer than its expected life span.

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