Bob Dylan sells his songwriting catalogue in blockbuster deal

On Monday, the Universal Music Publishing Group announced that it had signed a landmark deal to purchase Bob Dylan’s entire songwriting catalogue — including world-changing classics like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Like a Rolling Stone” — in what may be the biggest acquisition ever of the music publishing rights of a single act.

The deal, which covers Dylan’s entire career, was struck directly with Dylan, 79, who has long controlled the majority of his own songwriting copyrights.

The price was not disclosed but is estimated at more than $300 million.

“It’s no secret that the art of songwriting is the fundamental key to all great music nor is it a secret that Bob is one of the very greatest practitioners of that art,” Lucian Grainge, chief executive of the Universal Music Group, said.

The deal is the latest and most high-profile in this year’s buzzing market for music catalogues, as artists both young and old have sold their songs, while publishers and investors have raised billions of dollars from both public and private sources to close those deals.

Dylan’s deal includes 100% of his rights for all the songs of his catalogue, including both the income he receives as a songwriter and his control of each song’s copyright. In exchange for its payment to Dylan, Universal, a division of French media conglomerate Vivendi, will collect all future income from the songs.

The deal includes more than 600 songs spread across a number of publishing companies that Dylan has had over the years. With the exception of his original Leeds Music deal — which included seven songs, among them “Song for Woody” and “Talkin’ New York” — Dylan eventually took full control of all his copyrights from those catalogues; Leeds was sold in 1964 to MCA, which became Universal.

The new deal with Universal does not include any of Dylan’s unreleased songs. It also doesn’t cover any work Dylan writes in the future.

The Universal deal also includes Dylan’s shares in a number of songs he has written with other songwriters, although of the more than 600 titles included in the deal, there is only one in which Dylan is not a writer but still owns the copyright: Robbie Robertson’s “The Weight,” as recorded by the Band.