Kanye West claims his priceless music catalog was sold behind the scenes.
“My publications are for sale without my knowledge,” the recording artist and clothing designer writes in all caps. his instagram story on tuesday. “Not for sale.”
The announcement came amid a Billboard report suggesting West, who goes by the name Ye, has been quietly shopping through his catalog for potential buyers.
The “Donda” rapper compared the situation to that of Taylor Swift, with the pop singer-songwriter embroiled in a bitter battle with manager Scooter Braun over ownership of her six first albums. Re-recorded albums from 2012 album “Fearless” and 2012 album “Red”.
West also shared a screenshot of a text conversation with someone close to West’s former manager Gee Roberson.
“Can you ask Gee, who sells my publications,” West asked.
A representative for Roberson said the report was “fake news” and that the publisher was making a pitch to buy West’s catalog.
With the success of music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music increasing the value of recorded music, publishers, music companies, and private equity firms have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to buy music artists’ catalogs. spending dollars.
Over the last 20 years, songwriter catalogs have generally sold for a publisher’s net share, or about 8 to 12 times their gross margin. Today, some valuations are 25 to 30 times his share of publishers. Sony Music Entertainment last year bought Bruce Springsteen master his recordings and songs for $500 million. Earlier this year, Warner Chappell Music purchased David Bowie’s songwriting catalog for $250 million.
Billboard reported that West was asking for as much as 35 times the publisher’s net share.
Billboard estimates that songs in West’s catalog generate more than $13.25 million in royalties annually. West’s share of ownership based on writing credits will generate a profit of about $5 million, the report says.
A 24-time Grammy Award winner, he had four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. His nine of his albums debuted at number one for him. Overall, West has sold an estimated 160 million records. This is the highest number of recordings of his artist in history.
Meanwhile, he’s engaged in a battle with Gap after ending his partnership with the clothing retailer last week. I called it unsuccessful.
“In particular, Gap does not dispute that it has been failing to sell a single product in a single Gap store for over two years, including over 500 stories in America,” West wrote on Instagram. The termination notice shared at said.
West recently hired Elon Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro to help with his legal battle, and also announced the hiring on his Instagram, according to a report by the New York Post.
