Gimme More! Britney Spears sells catalogue, certain other IP right, for reported $200m

Britney Spears Stock photos by Vecteezy

US entertainment industry sites report that US pop star Britney Spears has sold the rights to her entire music catalogue, plus certain other unspecified rights for $200m.  

The BBC says: “Spears, 44, is said to have sold to independent music publisher Primary Wave on 30 December for around $200m (£146m).” Her hits include: …Baby One More Time, Oops!... I Did It Again, Toxic, Gimme More and Womanizer. 

Download statistics suggest Spears’ music gets over 1 billion Spotify streams and over 500 million YouTube views annually, generating an estimated $30m in royalties every year. 

Neither Primary Wave nor representatives for Spears have confirm details of the deal; but Variety points out that “Sony Music owns and controls the rights to Spears’ entire recorded music catalogue, so it seems likely she sold the rights to her artist royalties.” 

Spears’ last song was a duet with Elton John, Hold Me Closer, released in 2022, her first release in six years. In January 2024, the singer said she would "never return to the music industry," but clarified that this meant she would not herself perform, and that she had been ‘ghost writing’ songs for other performers since 2022.  

Primary Wave started off in 2006 with the acquisition of Courtney Love’s 50% of Curt Cobain’s rights to the Nirvana catalogue. Since then, the company has expanded its catalogue to include the copyrights to 15,000 songs, with tracks by The Doors, Notorious BIG, Prince, and Whitney Houston in its portfolio. 

Details of the sale and the exact price of Spears' catalogue have not been revealed. 

Spears is just the latest high-profile recording artist, group, or composer to sell various rights to their output. Some notable deals from the last five years alone: 

• Queen sold their music catalogue to Sony for over $1 billion, one of the largest deals in history. 

• Michael Jackson Estate sold 50% of his music catalogue to Sony Music for at least $600m. 

• Bruce Springsteen sold his entire catalogue to Sony Music for an estimated $500–$550m. 

• Pink Floyd sold its recorded music and name/likeness rights (but not it seems copyright to their songs) to Sony for $400m. 

• David Bowie Estate sold publishing rights for roughly $250m. 

Bucking this trend, Taylor Swift bought back the rights to her first six studio albums last year, after years of attempting to recover them – and her decision to rerecord new versions of all of them, with additional material. She was able to do that because she retained copyright to all the material as the song writer, although she had lost the rights to the recorded studio versions.  

Who owns what rights when it comes to music – and other entertainment output – is incredibly complicated.