(Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Queen's music catalogue, along with many other rights, is in the process of being acquired by Sony Music for £1 billion (approximately $1.27 billion), two sources confirmed to Variety. The news was first reported by Hits magazine. The publication reports that the only revenue not covered by the deal is from live performances, which will be retained by founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor, who still actively tour with singer Adam Lambert.
One other bid was said to be very close, but stopped short at $900 million.
The catalog has been in negotiation for years and has been gradually moving closer to Sony in recent months as part of a complex deal that sees Disney retaining the rights to the group's recorded music in the U.S. and Canada in perpetuity — which Disney acquired sometime in the 2000s after an initial $10 million licensing deal was signed in 1991 — but a portion of the band members' remaining royalties will go to Sony once the deal closes. Similarly, the group's current distribution deal with Universal will go to Sony in all territories outside the U.S. and Canada when it expires in the next few years.
Representatives for Sony Music, Sony Music Publishing, Disney's Hollywood Records and the group either declined or did not immediately respond to Variety's requests for comment, but in Sony's case, this isn't surprising as the company rarely comments on catalog acquisitions and the nine-figure deals for Bruce Springsteen's publishing and recorded music rights and Bob Dylan's recorded music rights, while not officially confirmed, are common knowledge in the industry.
Queen's music catalog is one of the most valuable of the rock era. With classics like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Radio Ga Ga,” “39,” “Somebody to Love,” and “You're My Best Friend,” as well as stadium-shaking classics like “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions,” Queen's songs are popular worldwide and generate huge revenues. The success of the 2018 biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” points to the potential for the group's name and likeness rights, as well as a jukebox musical that could open in London or Broadway and then tour indefinitely.
Queen were originally formed in London in 1970 by May and Taylor (who had previously worked together in the group Smile), with Freddie Mercury on vocals and piano and John Deacon on bass the following year. After initially being turned down by several record companies, the group signed with EMI and released their self-titled first album, which included the hit “Keep Yourself Alive”, written by May.
Over the next few years, the group had hits in the UK with the singles “Seven Seas of Rhye” and “Killer Queen,” but their international breakthrough came in 1975 with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a mini-symphony written by Freddie Mercury that became the longest-running and most unusual hit single of all time.
The band quickly became one of the biggest groups in the world, and every member wrote a number one single over the next decade: Freddie's “Bohemian Rhapsody,” as well as May's “We Will Rock You” in 1977, Deacon's “Another One Bites the Dust” in 1980, and Taylor's “Radio Ga Ga” in 1984. Though they never took the US by storm as much as other territories, the band played stadiums all over the world, and their performance at Brazil's Rock in Rio festival in 1985 held the single concert attendance record for several years. However, Freddie contracted AIDS and died of complications from the disease in 1991.
Over the years, Queen's legacy has not only endured, but grown: Their songs are still played heavily on the radio and at sporting events, “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” are stadium classics, and May and Taylor, now in their mid-70s, continue to tour under the name Queen.