Pop superstar Britney Spears has reportedly sold her entire music catalogue to an independent music publishing company on December 30 in a multimillion dollar deal.
The “Piece of Me” hitmaker is said to have sold her catalogue of music to Primary Wave, an independent music publisher for about $200 million, with the sale covering some of her biggest hits including “Baby One More Time”, “I’m a Slave 4 U”, “I Wanna Go” and ”Gimme More”, to name a few.
Primary Wave has also acquired rights to the estates of Notorious BIG, Prince and Whitney Houston in previous years.
However, details of the sale and the exact price of Spears’ catalogue have not been made publicly available.
Wave of catalogue sales
According to the BBC, high-profile artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake and Shakira have also recently sold their catalogues.
Springsteen sold his back catalogue to Sony in 2021 for $500m, and Bieber reportedly signed a $200m deal with Hipgnosis Songs Capital in 2023.
Although it may seem that a catalogue sale by Spears would be a sign of financial trouble, financial experts indicate that it could be a strategic tax move in a financial environment that currently favours music sales.
Avi Dahan, founder of Dahan Law Group, told Fox News Digital that the sale doesn’t automatically indicate financial issues for the pop star.
“In many cases, it’s a strategic move, especially right now, because we’re in a hot catalogue market where institutional money and Wall Street have gotten much more comfortable treating music like an asset class,” Dahan said.
“Investors like music because streaming has made revenue more predictable than it used to be, and that demand has pushed valuations up.”
Dahan highlighted the “major tax component” associated with Spears’ music sale, which included the iconic hits “Toxic”, “Gimme More”, “Circus” and “Overprotected”.
“In the right structure, an artist may be able to treat the sale as a capital transaction and potentially qualify for long-term capital gains treatment, rather than ordinary income on royalties over time,” he explained.
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Leaving the music industry
The sale comes after a tumultuous period in Spears’ life.
In 2021, she was freed from a controversial conservatorship – a legal guardianship – supervised by her father for over 13 years.
The conservatorship restricted her from making decisions about her personal affairs, including finances.
In 2024, Spears revealed that she was not returning to the music industry in an Instagram post, following rumours that she was working on a new album.
The 44-year-old wrote on social media: “They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album…I will never return to the music industry!!!”
“I’m a ghostwriter and I honestly enjoy it that way!!!”
Fans had been anticipating her return to music and although she had hinted before that she is wary of returning to the industry, this was the first time she had unequivocally ruled it out.
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