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Since being discovered by Usher at the age of 13, Justin Bieber has amassed 290 titles in his music catalog. As a result, the music rights were worth a whopping $200 million for the singer. But because up until late Bieber was still showing a desire to perform and take his music to his fans, it left many scratching their heads that the decision was made at such a young age to give up the rights that could have continued to make the Ghost singer for decades to come.
Because of this, many believe there may be more going on behind the scenes than Bieber is revealing, which ultimately led to the decision to part with his music. In fact, Justin Bieber may have made the wrong choice in selling his music rights.
Justin Bieber Sold His Music Catalog For $200 Million
The reason that any artist sells the rights to their music is to make a substantial income. For people such as Bruce Springsteen who sold their entire catalog, that is upwards of $550 million. Stevie Nicks sold a portion of her work for $100 million.
Because Bieber still potentially has a long career in front of him and his music is still massively popular, that led to speculation about why he would sell his music rights.
The first school of thought is that Bieber joined other young artists in selling his music rights before a law went into effect that would cause capital gains taxes to be higher on the profit made from the sale.
Many artists, such as Justin Timberlake, Shakira, Neil Young, and more went this route selling all or some of their royalties. Given Bieber's young age and his likelihood to make more music, this does not seem like the most logical explanation behind the sale.
Many believe that the reason the Peaches singer sold his music rights is health-related. And given the setbacks Bieber has suffered as of late, it's a plausible theory. Bieber's plan was to perform his new music for fans in 2020. However, as a result of the pandemic, that tour had to be postponed.
The rescheduled dates were to take place in 2022. This is right around the time that Bieber was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a viral illness that causes facial paralysis. And while Bieber attempted to power through shows once the condition appeared to get better, it was clear that he was exhausted.
"After getting off the stage (in Brazil), the exhaustion overtook me and I realized that I need to make my health the priority right now," Bieber explained last year. In doing so, he bucked a disturbing trend in the music industry where artists feel they have to perform no matter what. And it was after this statement was made that the tour was indefinitely canceled.
Given the state of his health, it is very possible that Bieber does not think that he will be making music, let alone returning to touring any time soon. And because of this, it likely made sense to cash out his royalties while he was still a popular entity to make as much money as possible if he does truly decide in the next several years to retire.
Could Justin Have Made More Than $200M From His Music?
When music rights are thought of, most think of just performance and airplay that gets the artist paid. In reality, there are many more ways that royalties factor into music artists making a living.
With everything from public appearance royalties to mechanical royalties, synchronization royalties, digital royalties, print royalties, neighboring rights, and sampling royalties, there are many ways for singers to make some extra cash outside their recording contracts. If singers write some or all of their music, that means more money still.
Given that Bieber writes, sings, and performs his songs, he was entitled to a decent amount of money from his music. While the exact amount can vary when it comes to what artists make with radio play, for digital downloads, it would not be uncommon for a popular song to make millions of dollars with "$0.006 and $0.0084 made per stream in royalties."
Given that Bieber still has very popular music that continues to be downloaded, he will be missing out on that income.
It has been estimated that the Boyfriend singer made $80 million per year. This comes from his album sales, touring, and merchandise sales. Included in this figure are the royalties that come with the stage performances as well. But, with touring potentially coming to an end, that also means that this steady stream of income does as well.
While there is still the potential for royalties to make Bieber some passive income over the next several years, the Yummy singer likely weighed the pros and cons of selling his catalog and determined it was best for him to have a portion of what could have been made on his music now, versus receiving it piecemeal over the next several decades or more.
Given the speculation that Bieber has a tendency to overspend, this route might have been a good one for the singer.
Music Rights Do Not Apply To New Music Justin Creates
While Bieber has made the decision to sell his back catalog, this does not mean that any future music the Love Yourself singer makes or writes is affected by this sale. Instead, he will make money from royalties should he be able to return to his music career when and if the Ramsay Hunt syndrome goes into remission.
By selling his royalties to Hipgnosis Songs Capital, for $200 million, Bieber's net worth went upwards of $400 million. If he released any new music from 2022 forward, then he will only continue to grow his fortune. As such, there are no worries about being financially comfortable while working through his rare virus, and there likely will be huge hype when/if a new album is released in the future.
This means that not only will Bieber have made a significant amount of money from selling his catalog (although perhaps less than what would have been made over the course of his lifetime had Bieber kept his music rights) but has the ability to make a great deal more given his young age.
Therefore, some money may have been lost in the long term with the decision made to sell his catalog, but fans can rest assured that Bieber will not be hurting financially today or in the foreseeable future despite his choice to sell his creative work.