Kanye West took to Instagram on Tuesday to question a Billboard report thathis “camp” has been quietly shopping his song catalog, writing via Stories:“Just like Taylor Swift… my publishing is being put up for my sale without myknowledge.”
Billboard reported on Monday that members of the rapper’s team “have metselectively with prospective buyers to explore what kind of valuation his songcatalog could fetch,” estimating that they are seeking $175 million. Inanother Instagram Story, West posted a screenshot of a text message with anunnamed person, with West asking, “Can you ask Gee who is selling mypublishing,” likely referring to his manager Gee Roberson.
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“Fake news,” the person replies. “Of course every publisher wants to pitchthere [sic] hardest to buy. Smh.”
Representatives for West and his publisher, Sony Music Publishing, did notimmediately respond to variety ‘s request for comment.
As is often the case with West, there’s a lot to unpack in the situation.
First, it is difficult to imagine anyone in his camp shopping the rights tohis music without his knowledge, although with the frequent and rapid turnoverof his management staff and his multiple ongoing projects, there is certainlypotential for miscommunication. As the value of publishing and recorded-musiccatalogs has soared in recent years, virtually every major artist has exploredsuch sales — sources say Bob Dylan sold his publishing for nearly $400 millionand his recorded-music for around $200 million — so it’s not surprising thatreps for West would test the waters, especially as rising interest rates andfears of inflation have cooled off the market in recent months.
Story continues
Second, although West compares himself to Swift, the situations aredrastically different, even if someone were shopping his publishing withouthis knowledge. Swift’s publishing catalog was never for sale; instead, aconsortium led by Justin Bieber/ Ariana Grande manager Scooter Braun paid areported $300 million for the rights to the masters owned by her former labelBig Machine, which included her first six albums (adding another twist, Braunmanaged West for a couple of different stints in 2016-2018).
While Swift has said she was initially unaware of a potential Big Machine saleand much about that situation remains unclear, she attempted to buy hermasters from the label before the Braun-led deal closed, but found the termsunacceptable. Instead, she is two albums into the process of recording newversions of those Big Machine albums (adding multiple bonus tracks) andreleasing them via her own company, and licensed to Universal Music Group’sRepublic Records. Just 17 months after acquiring Big Machine, Braun sold hisinterest for a substantial profit.
West has made noise about acquiring the rights to his publishing and recorded-music at least twice in the past, even going so far as to post excerpts fromhis contracts on social media in 2018. In September of 2020 he wrote onTwitter, “I ‘m not putting no more music out till I’m done with mycontract[s]” and in a different post included a screenshot of a text from anunnamed advisor apparently claiming that his masters are worth more thanSwift’s. (He has released two versions of his “Donda” album and multiple othersongs since he made that statement.)
Additionally, the documents he posted in 2018 showed that not only was hestill legally bound by those contracts, but that they had been renegotiatedmore than once at terms very favorable to him, by current standards. It alsohas become clear that West apparently already owns the rights to many of hisrecordings: The copyright on all of his albums from 2016’s “Life of Pablo”album onward is credited to his company Getting Out Our Dreams II, LLC (avariation on the name of his earlier label, Getting Out Our Dreams, oftenabbreviated to GOOD) and licensed to his longtime label Def Jam, while therights to his previous recordings are credited only to Def Jam.
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