While publishing rights — sales of which have comprised the bulk of the industry’s catalog gold rush — can yield solid revenues, especially from sync licenses, recorded music rights are more directly tied to things like streams, downloads and album sales.
The Mötley Crüe deal — which is BMG’s largest single catalog acquisition since launching in 2008 — covers the band’s nine studio albums, as well as several live albums and compilation sets.Publishing rights have comprised the bulk of the blockbuster catalog sales, with artists like Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Stevie Nicks all taking part (Dylan reportedly netted $400 million for his publishing rights)But Mötley Crüe’s deal is more similar to the one Fleetwood Mac co-founder and drummer Mick Fleetwood struck with BMG, where he too sold his entire recorded music rights for an undisclosed fee.