Bob Dylan’s entire back catalogue of hundreds of songs has been acquired by Universal Music Group in a reported nine-figure deal.
The agreement, one of the largest in recent years, covers the copyrights to 600 of the 79-year-old US musician’s tracks, from 1962’s anthemic Blowin’ In The Wind and 1964’s The Times They Are A-Changin, to this year’s acclaimed Murder Most Foul.
It is understood that the catalogue was acquired from the artist himself.
The price has not been revealed, but is estimated at more than $300m (£226m), according to The New York Times, while the Financial Times also reports it was a nine-figure deal.
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) – which is headquartered in Los Angeles – is among the world’s largest publishing companies and represents songwriters and their back catalogue including Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Adele, Abba, Coldplay and The Clash.
Jody Gerson, UMPG chairman and chief executive, said: “To represent the body of work of one of the greatest songwriters of all time – whose cultural importance can’t be overstated – is both a privilege and a responsibility.”
In recent years, Dylan’s catalogue of music has been administered by Universal rival Sony/ATV outside the US and by the singer-songwriter’s own operations inside it.
As one of the music industry’s most influential and ground-breaking artists of all time, Dylan first burst into the public’s consciousness via the New York City Greenwich Village folk music scene in the early 1960s.
Born in Minnesota, Dylan was also the first songwriter to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, with the Swedish academy crediting him with “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
His songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times by a wide variety of artists from Adele to Jimi Hendrix, who have found both commercial and critical success with covers.
The news follows recent high-profile UMPG signings including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar.
Sir Lucian Grainge, chief executive of Universal Music Group, said it is “no secret that the art of songwriting is the fundamental key to all great music, nor is it a secret that Bob is one of the very greatest practitioners of that art”.
He added: “Brilliant and moving, inspiring and beautiful, insightful and provocative, his songs are timeless-whether they were written more than half a century ago or yesterday.”
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