What makes the Queen catalogue worth US$1.27 billion?

After weeks of speculation and rumour, it was announced this past week that Queen was divesting itself of their music. But what makes Queen's music worth so much?

After a pause when interest rates spiked, another act has decided to sell its catalogue of songs — and this sale is a doozy.

After a long period of negotiations, Sony Music Entertainment has agreed to take all of Queen’s songs off their hands for a cool £1 billion (US$1.27 billion or C$1.74 billion). The deal is expected to close in a few weeks.

That’s … a lot. No one has ever paid more for a song catalogue in the history of the known universe. The previous record holder, Bruce Springsteen’s sale of his music for US$500 million, seems like a bargain in comparison. Other big sales over the past couple of years include KISS, Bob Dylan, Sting, and Phil Collins (US$300 million each) and David Bowie (US$250 million). Even Sony’s purchase of half of the Michael Jackson catalogue (US$600 million) is dwarfed by this purchase.

The deal reported includes all Queen’s songs through 15 studio albums, 10 live albums, 16 compilations, 73 singles, 11 box sets and more. Sony also gets all related intellectual property such as logos, music videos, image and likeness rights, merch, publishing, and other parts of Queen’s empire. The only thing not covered is any revenue derived from live performances of the group’s current iteration which features original members Brian May and Roger Taylor.

This deal took a long time to work out because of the byzantine rights agreements Queen had with two other labels, Disney Music Group (they acquired the North American rights about 20 years ago) and Universal (which administered things for the rest of the world on behalf of Disney).

Complicating matters was the existence of Queen Production Ltd., the company owned by each of the living band members and the estate of Freddie Mercury. That entity owned the group’s recordings outside Canada and the U.S. The lawyers’ billable hours for this deal must have been huge when it came to untangling everything. It will take until perhaps 2027 for all rights to completely revert to Sony.

But why did Sony agree to pay so much? To us (and I’m generalizing here), we knew that Queen was big but they didn’t feel big, you know? But if you’re outside of North America, you completely understand.

Queen is one of the biggest global rock bands we’ve ever seen, selling somewhere beyond 300 million records. The group’s greatest hits album has sold over seven million copies in the U.K. alone, making it the country’s best-selling album of all time, eclipsing anything The Beatles released.