Justin Timberlake is cashing his chips in at the window.
Timberlake has sold his music catalog to Hipgnosis Music funded by Blackstone. Justin is only 41, making him the youngest of all songwriters to sell his catalog in its entirety.
In the last year we’ve seen Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and many others sell the rights to their songwriting catalogs and even recordings to big money endeavors. The result is a pay out of anywhere from $100 million to $500 million. The artist no longer receives royalties, they get the lump sum. Then the new owner goes out and aggressively places the music in commercials, movies, and other projects for big licensing fees.
The average age of the artists who’ve done this is 70 years old. Timberlake is not in that generation. But his sale is a sign that hed like his money now, please, rather than wait until he’s 70 and there is no more business. Justin has his name as a co-writer credit on all his solo material, including his biggest hit, “Can’t Stop the Feeling.”
Justin is also not prolific. He hasn’t released an album of new material since 2018’s Man of the Woods. His back to back smash hits, “20/20,” volumes 1 and 2, came in 2013. Married, with two small children, he obviously has an eye on financial independence and estate planning.
Hipgnosis has been very splashy in the last couple of years, especially using a huge investment from Blackstone to buy up catalogs. There have been whispers of some quiet changes within the company recently, but so far their ship keeps sailing with confidence.
As for Justin, it won’t be long before we’ll be hearing all his songs pitching various products. One of his hits was called “Sexy Back,” and soon we’ll hearing some product is ‘bringing sexy back.’ It could be a car, a liquor, or a detergent!
