Justin Bieber's favourite number was likely eight. .The Canadian music phenom recorded eight number one singles on the US Billboard hot 100 chart and eight number one albums on Billboard's top 200 charts..It more likely his favourite number now is 200 million — as in US$200 million, which he got for selling his entire back catalogue of music to the music rights investment company, Hipgnosis Songs Capital..Hipgnosis confirmed they closed the deal to buy 100% of Justin Bieber's publishing, as well as his artist royalties from his master recordings and neighbouring rights. This makes it the largest rights sale for any artist of Bieber's generation and also Hipgnosis's biggest acquisition to date. .It covers all 290 titles in Bieber's catalog released prior to Dec. 31, 2021, including his most recent album, Justice (2021).."The impact of Justin Bieber on global culture over the last 14 years has truly been remarkable," said Hipgnosis CEP Merck Mercuriadis in a statement. "At only 28 years of age, he is one of a handful of defining artists of the streaming era that has revitalized the entire music industry, taking a loyal and worldwide audience with him on a journey from teen phenomenon to culturally important artist.” .“This acquisition ranks among the biggest deals ever made for an artist under the age of 70, such is the power of this incredible catalog that has almost 82 million monthly listeners and over 30 billion streams on Spotify alone. His manager, Scooter Braun, helped him build a magnificent catalogue, and it's a pleasure to welcome Justin and his incredible songs and recordings to the Hipgnosis family.".“What I wanted to do on behalf of the entire songwriter community is to really establish music as an asset class and create a market,” Mercuriadis said on Tuesday, equating the value of hit songs to gold or oil..“I wanted to demonstrate to the financial community that these great proven songs have very predictable, reliable income and therefore they are investable.”.Bieber is only the latest big name to score big bucks for their scores. Many other artists have done the same recently, including Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Justin Timberlake, Leonard Cohen, Nile Rodgers, Kenny Chesney, Neil Young, Nelly Furtado, Sting, David Bowie‘s estate, Phil Collins and his Genesis bandmates, Future, Frank Zappa‘s estate and Neil Diamond..And it really is big bucks..The Wall Street Journal reported investors and music management companies “have been buying catalogs for as much as 30 times their average annual royalties.”.“The streaming era has made music more valuable than ever,” reports CNN. “Services like Spotify and Apple Music have revolutionized the music industry. And it is a business that is still on the advance.”.“The streaming market, especially if you think globally, has been steadily growing,” says Serona Elton, a former recording executive who now teaches as professor of music industry at the University of Miami Frost School of Music..“It has expanded into new markets as the costs of cellphones and Wi-Fi and cell services go down.”.At the same time, said Elton, the pandemic starved artists of touring revenue, forcing them to look at other moneymaking opportunities to expand their revenue stream. And the poor economic conditions created by the pandemic helped businesspeople realize that music is a “recession-proof asset,” she said, adding, “Even if someone loses their job, they’re still listening to music.”
