Universal Music 'set to buy Rock band Queen's catalog for a staggering $1billion' in the biggest deal in music history

 

Rock band  Queen's entire music catalog is set to sell for $1 billion in a potential sale to Universal Music Group.

A source familiar with the acquisition told CNN, that discussions are 'well underway' on the deal that would see UMG acquire Queen's catalog from Disney Music Group.

The source also told the news site that the sale could potentially surpass $1 billion and that it was expected to 'close within one month'.

This apparent megadeal would include everything from their 1973 self-titled debut album through to their

1995 album Made in Heaven, the last to feature lead singer Freddie Mercury who died four years earlier.

Should the sale be completed, it would become the biggest single-artist music catalog sale in history.

Queen band members Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon – plus the Freddie Mercury estate – each own equal shares in the company Queen Productions Ltd, which owns the group's recording catalog outside the US and Canada.

 The sale would easily surpass the $550 million paid by Sony Music Group to acquire Bruce Springsteen's recorded music and publishing catalogs in late 2021.

 Queen was formed in London in 1970 by singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist John Deacon.

 Since then, Queen has sold 300 million records worldwide and earned nine Top 20 hits, including No. 1s 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and 'Another One Bites the Dust.'

 In 2018, Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was announced as the world's most-streamed song from the 20th century.

At the time, it had surpassed over 1.6 billion streams globally across all major streaming services.

Now, on Spotify alone, that number has soared to over 2.1 billion.