Katy Perry sells her music catalog for $225M

[Guillaume Hamon 5,910]

I'm curious about how much is Katy getting with this sale? I guess she has to share it with co-writers, producers and the labels who invested in these albums...

[Teletubby 133,008]

9 minutes ago, Guillaume Hamon said:

I'm curious about how much is Katy getting with this sale? I guess she has to share it with co-writers, producers and the labels who invested in these albums...

she only sold her stake. co-writers, producers.. still own their

[Monstermilo 3,570]

honestly good move 

 

[LaLa 19,021]

1 hour ago, Kim Petrus said:

Some artists only live on royalties when their career are over. I don’t understand this move

 

I can think of a few reasons...

Maybe she feels she can get a better return by taking the big lump sum and investing it rather than waiting for royalties to trickle in each year. Requires that you be good with money/have trusted financial people around you though!

I can also see it for an artist who was going to switch labels or get out of music, not wanting to deal with their old label. You might not trust them/ their accounting. Even Gaga who seems to have a pretty good relationship with Interscope audited them in ~2015 (right before her new contract I think) and found they owed her money, a number of millions I think. Arranging for forensic accounting every few years is probably a big hassle and if you sell your share that's not your problem anymore.

I also get it for older artists who don't want their family to have to deal with their estate (whether because they don't trust them, they know it will cause fights, whatever).

And  @bionic mentioned some tax implications that I really know nothing about that come into play

At the end of the day some artists really feel strongly about being in charge of their artistic legacy and some not so much and as long as they are getting good financial advice I think it's fine

[Reality 71,553]

6 hours ago, littlepotter said:

Damn that's a lot of money. I wouldn't think her catalogue would earn this much going forward so I wonder what made them decide it's worth the investment

I doesn't really seem like a lot of money to me tbh. It feels fairly low considering how popular her music is.

[Anderson123 35,185]

Good move but a little surprised she'd do this in the age of Tik Tok. Her music catalogue (especially Teenage Dream and Prism) can easily become popular over and over again. Or maybe she wanted the money now, who knows if Tik Tok will be as influential as it is in 10 years.

[LateToCult 39,563]

4 hours ago, Kim Petrus said:

Some artists only live on royalties when their career are over. I don’t understand this move

 

Katy Perry will never have to worry about surviving from royalties. She owns expensive real estate and can always make a few tens of millions from touring or a residency if she ever needs to. She’s set for life.

[Edonis 28,557]

It’s funny because liddos always say that Gaga is the one that’s over her music career, but ask the diehard Katy Kats the same question after this move and the response is much less mixed 

[Mother of Puppies 35,539]

11 minutes ago, Edonis said:

It’s funny because liddos always say that Gaga is the one that’s over her music career, but ask the diehard Katy Kats about this move and the reception is much less mixed 

I'm a katycat and monster... and each artist has their prime and Gaga's and Katy's musical careers peaked many years ago. Younger people fancy younger artists now. Many years ago they and we were the young generation. It's always been like that. And that's ok. It doesn't mean they're not succesfull anymore - they start new projects and the real fans will always buy their newer music and go to their shows. They become older with their fans.

And as we can see both started new projects - founding companies, doing tv, acting etc. We have to accept that they also have other interests besides music

[Gagarka 421]

On topic: 
How much do you think Gaga's catalog of songs is worth?

 

[ImMatt 1,562]

38 minutes ago, Gagarka said:

On topic: 
How much do you think Gaga's catalog of songs is worth?

 

I would say less than this, but not by much. Maybe $200m?? Katy's music has more commercial opportunities for adverts etc so that's why I think it would be slightly more 

[Ziggy 10,722]

10 hours ago, littlepotter said:

Damn that's a lot of money. I wouldn't think her catalogue would earn this much going forward so I wonder what made them decide it's worth the investment

Licensing potential easily. They’re looking at tiktok revivals of songs and how 2000s is big now and thinking teenage dream will have its revival moment in a few years’ time to put on every commercial. I tooootally get it. Teenage dream alone is a VERY lucrative buy but when you remember she had huge hits well up to 2017 it’s like oh okay I get it.

[Ziggy 10,722]

54 minutes ago, Gagarka said:

On topic: 
How much do you think Gaga's catalog of songs is worth?

 

Comparable but a little less. I think we forget that Gaga has had BIG singles but Katy has had a behemoth string of #1s in her time. Gaga’s commercial performance is a little scattered throughout the top 10-15 though when she hits she HITS. Katy has like, what, 9 #1s alone? Plus the overall commercial quality of her lesser big stuff makes them very valuable. Gaga’s stuff is iconic but also a little niche in usage. Just look at Roar vs Applause for reference.

That said, the legs of gaga’s career I think would let her sell them for more at another point down the line. Provided shallow isn’t her last crazy big hit (and I doubt it is), the length of cultural relevancy and dominance of the act plays a bit part in sellability. 

[Tinnitus15 50,486]

7 hours ago, weed said:

I’d say OOTB $25M, Teenage Dream $100M, Prism $90M, Witness $7M, Smile $3M 

Smile was part of the “buy 4 get one FREE”

[LateToCult 39,563]

13 minutes ago, Tinnitus15 said:

Smile was part of the “buy 4 get one FREE”

Not Smile being a BOGO