Company buys JB's music - 13th February 2023

A big music company, Hipgnosis Records Capitol, has purchased all of Justin Bieber's songs for $200 million.

Bieber is a huge pop star with 290 songs and a string of hits like Baby and Let Me Love You. Hipgnosis will now get the royalties whenever his songs are on the radio or in films or when people stream them from Spotify. Bieber will be able to use the large sum of money for his next project.

Many musicians have made similar deals with music companies. Most of them wait until they retire, but Justin's just 28. Bruce Springsteen made $500 million by selling the rights to his songs.

Bieber may be taking a bit of a risk selling his song library. Although he has time to make more music, he won’t get any royalties from his early hits. If he invests the $200 million wisely, he could do well.

Hipgnosis is confident that Bieber's songs will be streamed for the next 50 years. Bieber’s fans are young and love downloading music. Founder Merck Mercuriadis says Bieber’s music is the best " soundtrack to the streaming revolution."

Mercuriadis is CEO of Hipgnosis and says hit songs are “more valuable than gold and oil.”

Bieber has over 24 million fans and they have streamed his songs over a billion times. Even though royalties from Spotify earn an artist very little for one stream, for Bieber, it meant $4 million for just one song.

Hipgnosis is satisfied with the deal with Bieber and believes it was a sound investment for the business. In Mercuriadis's opinion, music is something people buy even during tough economic times.

Hipgnosis’s share price went up by 1.7 percent after the announcement. However, it may be a generation before they make back the $200 million they paid for Bieber’s song library.