Bruce Springsteen has sold his masters and publishing to Sony in what Billboard says may be “the biggest deal in music for an individual body of work.†Springsteen had been shopping his catalog around both Sony and Universal Music Group since November, but it seemed likely Sony would get the goods. The Boss has been recording with Sony’s Columbia Records for his entire career. Springsteen was given ownership of his previous albums during the CD boom of the 80’s and 90’s, as an incentive to stay with Columbia. Billboard estimates that Springsteens catalog averages $12 million in sales a year, combined with $7.5 million a year from publishing.
The music sold includes everything from The River to last year’s Letter To You. Now, we’re not saying he should or even that he could under the details of the sale, but what if if in a few years Springsteen starts rerecording his whole catalog with a bunch of Bruce’s Version albums? Could be funny! The news comes a year after Bob Dylan sold his publishing rights to Universal Music Group.