A $550 million Springsteen deal? It's glory days for catalog sales

In 1972, a struggling New Jersey musician hustled into Manhattan for an audition at Columbia Records, using an acoustic guitar borrowed from his former drummer. “I had to haul it “Midnight Cow­boy”-style over my shoulder on the bus and through the streets of the city,” the rocker, Bruce Springsteen, later recalled in his memoirs.

Half a century later, he can afford plenty of guitars. Last week Sony, which now owns Columbia, announced that it acquired Springsteen’s entire body of work — his recordings and his songwriting catalogue — for what two people briefed on the deal said was about $550 million.

The price, which may be the richest ever paid for the work of a single musician, caused jaws to drop throughout the music industry. But it was only the latest mega-transaction in a year in which many prominent artists’ catalogs have been sold, fetching eye-popping prices.

The catalogue market was bubbling a year ago when Bob Dylan sold his son­g­writing ri­g­hts for over $300 million, but since then it has maintai­n­ed a steady boil. Ar­­ti­sts who’ve re­­cently sold th­eir work, in full or in part, inclu­des Paul Si­mon, Neil Young, Stevie Nic­ks, Tina Turner, Möt­ley Crüe, Shakira and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The industry is abuzz about imp­en­ding deals for Sting and the songwriting catalogue of David Bowie.

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