Warner Chappell Music (WCM) has purchased the complete catalog of the British David Bowie, as announced this Monday by the multinational, which highlights that it has acquired songs published over six decades from its 26 studio albums.
The magazine “Variety” assures that Warner has paid Bowie’s heirs more than $ 250 million (221 million euros) for the catalog of the musician who died in 2016 at the age of 69.
Among the songs purchased are éxitos como “Heroes”, “Changes”, “Let’s Dance”, “Ziggy Stardust”, “Starman”, “Rebel Rebel”, “Fame”, or his collaboration with Queen from 1981, “Under Pressure”, to name the most popular.
“These are not just extraordinary songs, but milestones that have changed the course of modern music forever “WCM CEO Guy Moot said in a statement, describing the catalog as “groundbreaking, influential and timeless.”
The deal also includes the posthumous album “Toy”, to be released this coming Friday., and that integrates new recordings carried out in New York in the year 2000 of his songs published between 1964 and 1971, along with a couple of new songs.
Last September, the record giant already announced that it had acquired the rights to all the albums Bowie recorded throughout his career.
The $ 250 million figure is less than half the $ 535 million reported by some British media in November, and it is far from the 500 million that Sony paid last December for the catalog of another music icon, Bruce Springsteen.
The agreement reached with the Bowie estate has been announced less than a week before his 75th birthday on January 8, and that it has been celebrated with the opening of two stores with British marketing in London and New York, and with the publication in November of the record collection “Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001)”.
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