BMG Acquires Rights to Simon & Garfunkel Royalties

It seems every day another artist sells the rights to their catalog. Paul Simon is among that ever-growing list of names after selling his stake in the Simon & Garfunkel royalties to BMG.

Per Rolling Stone, Simon sold a “substantial stake” in his rights to the company, though BMG didn’t reveal just how much they paid the folk icon.

“In any list of the true greats, Paul Simon stands as one of the pillars of popular music history,” BMG’s President, Repertoire & Marketing, Los Angeles and New York, Thomas Scherer told the outlet. “We will play our part to ensure his music continues to be honored and respected.”

With the deal closed, BMG has a stake in some of the duo’s biggest hits including “Mrs. Robinson,” “Cecilia,” and “The Sound of Silence.”

BMG has acquired a number of seminal catalogs from music greats including the late great Tina Turner, Peter Frampton, Fleetwood Mac, and more.

“We are delighted to have secured the agreement of Paul Simon for BMG to acquire his royalty interests in Simon & Garfunkel recordings and his neighboring rights income,” Thomas Coesfeld, BMG’s CEO-designate, added in a statement (per Rolling Stone). “This is a significant transaction. Our ability to secure this deal demonstrates once again that BMG provides the best home for the greatest artists.”

Simon previously sold the publishing rights to his catalog to Sony Music. That acquisition covered the entire breadth of Simon’s career – both as a solo act and as part of a duo.

Simon’s latest release was a seven-song project, Seven Psalms, that blew any preconceived notions of what an album should be out of the water.

“You have to give Paul Simon credit for defying expectations and reaching well beyond the breadth of anything he’s done before,” American Songwriter wrote in a review of the project. “Like the album Graceland, which resulted in an entirely different diversion from the narratives that came before, Seven Psalms is an album that attempts to recast Simon in an entirely different persona, that of an age-old folk minstrel given to songs of spiritual significance.”

(Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images)