The “All Of Me” singer recently sold his publishing catalog for an undisclosed amount.

BMG Rights Management and investment firm KKR “each purchased a 50% stake in Legend’s catalog. The deal covers all the music Legend wrote from late 2004 through early 2021, an impressive body of work that includes hits like “Ordinary People,” “Green Light,” “All Of Me,” and his 2014 Grammy and Oscar-winning track with Common, “Glory,” Rolling Stone reports.

The recent acquisition of the rights to John Legend’s music comes on the heels of recent news of other music artists who sold their music rights to music publishing companies.

BMG alone recently acquired the music catalogs of Mötely Crüe, Mick Fleetwood and Tina Turner, while KKR now has a majority stake in songwriter-singer-producer Ryan Tedder’s publishing.

Besides the John Legend joint purchase, Rolling Stone also reported that BMG and KKR “gone in together on ZZ Top’s publishing rights and any income from recorded music royalties and performance royalties.”

The music publishing “gold rush” started a few years ago with “blockbuster catalog acquisitions” to music publishing rights of legacy artists such as Bob Dylan, who sold a whopping $300 million to Universal Music Publishing Group, Bruce Springsteen for a reported $500 million to Sony, David Bowie whose catalog was quoted to be upwards of $250 million to Warner Music Group, and Stevie Nicks, whose song listings were bought by Primary Wave Music Publishing at around $100 million. The Red Hot Chili Peppers ($140 million) and Shakira (for “a multi-million dollar sum”) have also sold their rights to London-based music investment firm Hipgnosis.

Source: Manila Bulletin (https://mb.com.ph/2022/01/08/john-legend-cashes-in-on-music-catalog/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=john-legend-cashes-in-on-music-catalog)