Not everything is dry yet, but it looks like a record for Queen.
If you asked Brian May and Roger Taylor, they would probably say that Queen never ceased to exist. Supporters of the band and possibly a few critical observers sometimes see things differently and limit the band’s career to the point when Freddie Mercury died as a result of his AIDS illness.
But the guitarist and drummer are right about one thing: Queen have never stopped influencing and making money with their music. Even though the Brits may have been more popular at some times and more unimportant at others (which also applied to their active time with singer Mercury), since the biopic triumph with “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Queen have once again become one of the strongest brands in the rock world.
This should now also be turned into gold. The group’s music catalog is for sale. As multiple sources have told Billboard, Queen’s representatives have already agreed to an exclusive contract with a buyer.
The music assets included music recordings, publishing rights and ancillary income, the sources said. These additional revenue streams would also include revenue from the “Bohemian Rhapsody” film, merchandise and other licensing opportunities.
The deal could also include royalties from the catalog of North American master recordings that Queen sold to Disney-owned Hollywood Records at an unknown date. However, there are uncertainties about the legal status of the license.
$1.2 billion for Queen?
There is an impressive sum of 1.2 billion dollars that could be called for the music catalog with all the areas listed. Already last year, when Queen began to find a buyer to join the lucrative deals of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake and Mötley Crüe, there was talk of breaking through the billion dollar mark.
According to Billboard, Queen wanted to sell their rights to only a few selected bidders so that the management of their catalog was in safe hands. It is very likely that the band spoke to Universal Music Group. It can be assumed that financial institutions could also be involved in a purchase in order to cover the high price.
It is said that each band member, i.e. Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and the estate executors of the late Freddie Mercury, hired their own lawyer to negotiate the deal together. At least that’s what the sources cited by “Billboard” claim. Inquiries from the industry magazine were not answered.
The younger generation also (sometimes) listens to Queen
The bare numbers make it clear which treasure of gold is now being uncovered. From 1991 to the end of 2017, Queen sold an average of just over 750,000 units of their music per year in the United States. But since 2018, with the launch of the “Bohemian Rhapsody” biopic, the number of albums sold by the band rose to 2.074 million units and even grew to 3.58 million units the following year. Queen have also been a bank on the streaming market since their Oscar hit. According to Billboard, Queen songs have been viewed a total of 41 billion times.