The estate of Leonard Cohen has sold the publishing rights to the legendary songwriter’s entire catalog for an undisclosed sum, according to Reuters. In a press release, the buyer, Hipgnosis Songs Fund, said the sale includes the rights to “all 278 songs and derivatives” written by Cohen, including “Hallelujah” and “First We Take Manhattan.” Cohen died in 2016. Hipgnosis, a …
Is Music Getting Old?
Old music squares off with new music in Jacksonville
The music industry has been on shaky ground of late. From a pandemic-initiated halt to touring and logjams at vinyl record pressing plants, to a push for more equitable revenue models from streaming services (and artists pulling their music from Spotify) to private equity’s new interest in the songbooks of legacy artists, the entire premise of music as business is …
Spotify removes Neil Young’s music after he objects to Joe Rogan’s podcast
Updated January 27, 2022 at 8:13 AM ET Spotify has removed famed singer-songwriter Neil Young’s recordings from its streaming platform. On Monday, Young had briefly posted an open letter on his own website, asking his management and record label to remove his music from the streaming giant, as a protest against the platform’s distribution of podcaster Joe Rogan. Rogan has …
Buckets of (Making it) Rain
What Bob Dylan's $300 million catalog sale means for the recording industry.
A three month span in late-2020-early-2021 saw two monumental art sales. While the $69 million earned by digital-artist Beeple’s Non-Fungible Token (NFT) mosaic (in JPG format no less) at a Christie’s auction in March threatened to turn the visual arts world on its head, the music world was seemingly turned on its ear by another sale in December. No stranger …