Madrid. Sting sold his entire catalog of songs to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), both solo and those he composed with The Police, the company announced Thursday, in an operation valued at more than 250 million dollars.
UMPG, which already controlled the recordings of the British musician Sting, now adds the rights to his compositions, including hits like “Roxanne”, “Every Breath You Take”, “Message in a Bottle” or “Englishman in New York”.
Although Universal did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement, several media such as The New York Times They estimated it at more than 250 million dollars, while sources familiar with the operation assured The Wall Street Journal that it was closed at about 300 million dollars.
Sting thus joins other popular music giants who have recently decided to cash in on the rights to his songs, including Bruce Springsteen (who sold his catalog to Sony Music for some $500 million) and Bob Dylan (who got some 400 million Universal).
In a statement, Sting highlighted the great relationship he has had with Universal Music, which is his usual label, and he was very pleased that his catalog is going to “a home where you are valued and respected.”
“I have had the privilege of working with Sting for over 20 years and am excited to expand our relationship to now include music publishing,” said Lucian Grainge, the chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group.
Jody Gerson, the boss of UMPG, assured that the company will approach the catalog with “a sense of honor, responsibility and an enormous enthusiasm for what we can do for their music in the future”.
Universal highlighted Sting’s enormous influence on popular culture and how even today samples of his songs continue to serve as the basis for great successes and continue to be covered by well-known artists.
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The 70-year-old Briton has sold more than 100 million records throughout his career.first with The Police (with whom he released 5 albums between 1978 and 1983) and then solo -with 15 studio albums, the most recent “The Bridge”, released at the end of 2021-.
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