SME has also acquired the rights to multiple future new releases, in what the company calls “a major expansion” of its six-decade relationship with the legendary artist.
The deal, which SME calls a “landmark agreement”, concluded in July 2021 and comprises the entirety of Bob Dylan’s recorded body of work since 1962, beginning with the artist’s self-titled debut album and continuing through 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways.
Today’s news follows Sony Music Group‘s deal struck last month with another superstar artist, Bruce Springsteen, in which it acquired two sets of rights – both recordings and music publishing – covering the entirety of Springsteen’s catalog, in a deal worth at least $500 million.
Industry sources suggest that Sony‘s deal with Bob Dylan was worth north of $150 million.
According to a media release announcing today’s news, Bob Dylan and SME will continue to collaborate on a range of future catalog reissues in the artist’s Bootleg Series, which began in 1991 and includes 14 releases through last year’s lauded Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985).
The agreement also provides the opportunity for SME to partner with Dylan on additional projects.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s singular recording career.
He was signed to SME’s Columbia Records in October 1961 by the label’s John Hammond and recorded his debut album that same year.
His Bob Dylan album marked the start of an unparalleled musical journey by a master of music who continues to have a profound and global impact on culture.
In the decades since he first burst into the public’s consciousness via New York City’s Greenwich Village folk music scene in the early 1960s, Bob Dylan has sold more than 125 million records around the world. He continues to perform nearly 100 concerts annually.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 – the first songwriter to receive such a distinction – cited by the Swedish Academy “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
“Columbia Records and Rob Stringer have been nothing but good to me for many, many years and a whole lot.”
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan said: “Columbia Records and Rob Stringer have been nothing but good to me for many, many years and a whole lot of records.
“I’m glad that all my recordings can stay where they belong.”
Photo credit: Josh Cheuse“We are excited to work with Bob and his team to find new ways to make his music available to his many fans today and to future generations.”
Rob Stringer, Sony Music Group
Rob Stringer, Chairman, Sony Music Group said: “Columbia Records has had a special relationship with Bob Dylan from the beginning of his career and we are tremendously proud and excited to be continuing to grow and evolve our ongoing 60-year partnership. Bob is one of music’s greatest icons and an artist of unrivaled genius.
“The essential impact he and his recordings continue to have on popular culture is second to none and we’re thrilled he will now be a permanent member of the Sony Music family.
“We are excited to work with Bob and his team to find new ways to make his music available to his many fans today and to future generations.”
Back in December 2020, Universal Music Groupacquired the publishing rights to Dylan’s songwriting catalog in one of the biggest acquisitions in UMG’s history.
