Bruce Springsteen is reportedly looking to sell his recorded music and publishing catalogs, and he stands to make a massive payday if a deal goes through.
The Boss is negotiating with Sony for the sale of his album catalog, though it’s unclear yet whether the company will also purchase his publishing rights, Billboard reports. The publication estimates his album catalog to be worth between $145 and $190 million, while his publishing could fetch between $185 million and $225 million.
Springsteen’s combined catalogs are estimated to be worth between $330 million and $415 million, and sources say the superstar’s camp is seeking upward of $350 million for both.
These supersized figures reflect one of the most popular and celebrated bodies of work in rock history. According to the RIAA, Springsteen has sold more than 65 million albums in the U.S. alone, including the 15-times platinum Born in the U.S.A., the six-times platinum Born to Run and the five-times platinum The River.
The rocker is not merely coasting on former glories either. Since the beginning of 2018, Springsteen’s catalog has collected 2.25 million album-equivalent units, buoyed by 2019’s Western Stars and 2020’s Letter to You, both of which debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
If Springsteen inks a deal, he will be just the latest in a long line of rock luminaries to unload his catalog for a huge sum. In January, Neil Young sold 50 percent of his catalog to Hipgnosis Songs Fund for an estimated $150 million — a healthy payout, but nothing compared to the sale of Bob Dylan‘s publishing rights to Universal Music Publishing Group, which likely exceeded $400 million. Other artists to recently sell their publishing rights include David Crosby, Stevie Nicks, Journey and Nikki Sixx.
Bruce Springsteen Albums Ranked
Because he spent so many of his formative years painstakingly crafting his albums, we don’t often think of Bruce Springsteen as a prolific artist.