Sony Music Group has agreed to buy half of Michael Jackson’s publishing and recorded masters in a deal that is valued somewhere around $1.2 billion. According to Billboard, Sony will pay at least $600 million for the stake.
The catalog not only includes some of Jackson’s most popular songs but also the music assets that are a part of his Mijac catalog, which includes songs written by Sly Stone and songs made famous by artists such as Ray Charles.
The deal is supposedly the biggest for a single music artist’s assets to date.
Last year, Billboard estimated that Jackson’s estate earned about $75 million annually after Variety reported that the deal was being negotiated with Sony. The estimate did not take into account that Jackson’s estate has continued to grow as the streaming marketplace expanded.
From 2020 to 2023, sales and streams of Jackon’s music grew from 1.07 million album-equivalent units to 1.47 million. With Jackson’s biopic set to be released next year, his estate will continue to grow which means more revenue will flow to the estate.
