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The Weeknd Strikes $1 Billion Catalog Sale With Lyric
Courtesy of The Weeknd
The Weeknd (real name Abel Tesfaye) has struck a $1 billion deal with Lyric Capital Group to form a joint business venture around his catalog.
Why It Hits: Blockbuster catalog sales have been one of the biggest headlines in the music industry in recent years… but they’ve mostly been straightforward cash-outs — artists handing over their masters for life-changing sums. The Weeknd’s deal reimagines what’s possible with a catalog as an asset.
Behind The Deal: With a $1 billion payday, The Weeknd has seemingly scored the second-largest catalog deal ever (the biggest being Queen’s to Sony for $1.27 billion).
But the money is just the tip of the iceberg, per Variety.
The agreement covers his work from the start of his career through 2025, excluding all future releases.
Lyric buys into the catalog via a newly-created “Royalty Backend Note,” giving it a slice of the royalties.
Tesfaye and his team keep ownership of the masters and publishing, are shareholders in the new venture, and retain creative freedom.
Encore: Lyric — which also controls the catalogs of Tim McGraw and Ingrid Michaelson — said the agreement “sets a new standard for artist equity and control.” In fact, it might be the perfect middle ground between artists selling their masters outright for a ridiculous amount of money (like many legacy acts do nowadays) or keeping them under lock and key so that no one can ruin the integrity of the music (like Taylor Swift).
And because The Weeknd is at the height of his career — fresh off a record-breaking tour and boasting 120 million monthly Spotify listeners — he has the leverage to have his cake and eat it too.
The Future: Since Tesfaye plans to sunset The Weeknd moniker, he may be using the fresh capital to bankroll the next chapter of his music career. And with a billion-dollar runway, that chapter could be his most ambitious yet.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.