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Justin Bieber sells rights to ‘Baby’, rest of music catalogue

Published:Thursday | January 26, 2023 | 12:38 AM
Justin Bieber’s publishing rights, copyright ownership and all rights to his entire music catalog are now under Hipgnois. The deal reportedly cost US$200 million which is one of the biggest sales for a musician as young as Bieber, who is 28 years old.
AP
Justin Bieber’s publishing rights, copyright ownership and all rights to his entire music catalog are now under Hipgnois. The deal reportedly cost US$200 million which is one of the biggest sales for a musician as young as Bieber, who is 28 years old.

NEW YORK (AP):

Justin Bieber’s record-breaking pop hits from Baby to Sorry are no longer his after the superstar sold the rights to all his early career music.

The Canadian-American pop star’s six albums, including his most recent album Justice, are part of the massive catalogue sale deal with Hipgnosis, a UK-based music investment company.

Top artistes like Sting, Bob Dylan and Shakira have in recent years sold rights to their catalogues for massive sums, but at 28, Bieber is the youngest superstar singer to do so. Hipgnosis acquired Shakira’s catalogue in 2018.

Bieber’s publishing copyrights, songwriter’s ownership, master recordings and all rights of his entire catalogue of recordings made through 2021 are now owned by Hipgnosis. That covers 290 titles, including hits like Peaches, Beauty and the Beat music that Bieber has been releasing since he was 13.

The deal’s financial details have not been disclosed, but Billboard Magazine reports that the sale was worth an estimated US$200 million.

“Justin is truly a once in a generation artiste and that is reflected and acknowledged by the magnitude of this deal,” Scooter Braun, Bieber’s long-time manager, said in a statement Tuesday.

All of Bieber’s six official studio albums have been certified platinum or multiplatinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and he’s recorded 33 singles that have been designated platinum or multi-platinum globally. A song or album that sells more than a million copies receives platinum certification, while works that surpass two million sales become multiplatinum.

Bieber is the eighth most listened to artiste 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

“The impact of Justin Bieber on global culture over the last 14 years has truly been remarkable,” said Merck Mercuriadis, the founder of Hipgnosis Song Management.

Mercuriadis said that Bieber is a defining artiste in the streaming age and “the acquisition ranks among the biggest deals ever made for an artist under the age of 70”.