Big ch-ch-changes in the world of David Bowie music. The whole kit and caboodle has gone to Warner Chappell Music Publishing and Warner Music for $250 million according to reports.
Warner’s gets everything, the records and the songs. It’s the latest deal for the rights to legacy rock stars.
Bowie was with RCA for most of his heyday, then made a deal in 1997 with EMI, which became Capitol and is now Universal. So moving to Warner’s completes his hat trick of being with all the majors.
The Bowie catalog is highly marketable. Right now, “Is There Life on Mars?” is being used heavily thanks to the movie “Licorice Pizza.” Songs like “Heroes” and “Let’s Dance” are in constant demand. There are dozens more including “Space Oddity,” “Young Americans,” and so on. We’ll be hearing them in commercials and in movies for the rest of our natural lives.
The Bowie estate goes to his widow, the supermodel, Iman, their daughter, and presumably Bowie’s son, film director Duncan Jones.
