After selling his back repertoire to Universal Music for an estimated $300 million, Sting has become the latest senior rocker to cash in on his songwriting collection.
Artists have recently sold their catalogs and rights to recorded music, with Sony buying Bruce Springsteen's songwriting portfolio and rights to recorded music for an estimated $550 million in December. David Bowie's estate sold his publishing collection to Warner Chappell Music for $250 million earlier this year.
Songs composed during his solo career and for The Police include "Roxanne," "Every Breath You Take," and "Message in a Bottle," among others. His recorded music repertoire is already owned by Universal Music.
More than 600 songs' copyrights, as well as potential revenues on the collection, are included.
“I am delighted to have Jody and the team at UMPG curate and manage my song catalog,” Sting said in a news release, referring to Universal Music Publishing Group CEO Jody Gerson. “It is absolutely essential to me that my career’s body of work have a home where it is valued and respected — not only to connect with longtime fans in new ways but also to introduce my songs to new audiences, musicians and generations.”
As streaming music grows more widespread, major music conglomerates are scurrying to buy artist catalogs. For an estimated $550 million, Sony purchased Bruce Springsteen's composition portfolio and recorded music copyrights in December. In a deal worth more than $250 million, David Bowie's estate sold his publishing collection to Warner Chappell Music earlier this year.
Nas, The Roots, 2Pac, and French Montana have all sampled Sting's music.
“Shape of My Heart” was sampled in Juice WRLD’s “Lucid Dreams,” which has over 1.8 billion streams on Spotify alone.
“I could never have imagined that someday I would get to lead a company that will be the guardian of Sting’s remarkable songwriting legacy,” Gerson said in a statement. “Every one of us at UMPG looks forward to this work with a sense of honor, responsibility and enormous excitement about what we can achieve for his music in the future.”
