NEW YORK – Justin Bieber’s record-breaking pop hits from ‘Baby’ to ‘Sorry’ are no longer his after the superstar sold the rights to all of his early career music.
The Canadian-American pop star’s six albums, including his most recent album Justice, are part of a massive catalog sales deal with Hipgnosis, a UK-based music investment firm.
like top artists spike, Bob Dylan and Shakira have sold rights to their catalogs for huge sums in recent years, but at 28, Bieber is the youngest superstar singer to do so. hipgnosis acquired Shakira’s catalogue in 2018.
Bieber’s publishing copyrights, songwriter ownership, master recordings and all rights to his entire catalog of recordings made through 2021 are now owned by Hipgnosis. That includes 290 tracks, including hits like “Peaches,” “Beauty and the Beat,” music Bieber has been releasing since he was 13.
The financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but Billboard Magazine was reports that the sale was worth an estimated $200 million.
“Justin is truly a one-of-a-kind artist, and that is reflected and recognized by the size of this deal,” Scooter Braun, Bieber’s longtime manager, said in a statement Tuesday.
All six of Bieber’s official studio albums have been certified platinum or multiplatinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and he has recorded 33 singles that have gone platinum or multiplatinum worldwide. A song or album that sells more than one million copies earns a platinum certification, while works that sell two million copies earn multiplatinum.
Bieber is the 8th most listened to artist in the world on Spotify with 69 million monthly listeners and over 30 billion streams. His video for “Baby” has been streamed more than 2.9 billion times on YouTube.
“Justin Bieber’s impact on global culture over the past 14 years has been truly remarkable,” said Merck Mercuriadis, founder of Hipgnosis Song Management.
Mercuriadis said that Bieber is a defining artist in the streaming age and “the acquisition ranks among the biggest deals ever made for an artist under 70.”
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