Katy Perry Sells Catalog Rights to Litmus Music for $225 Million (variety.com)

multiple sources put the price at $225 million. The deal includes Perry’s stakes in master recordings and publishing rights for the five albums she released between 2008 and 2020: “One of the Boys,” “Teenage Dream”, “Prism,” “Witness” and “Smile.” Universal Music Group continues to own the masters to those albums.

Admittedly, I know nothing about how the music industry works. My only recent knowledge comes from the Taylor Swift situation where she is releasing her own (new) recordings of her music. Hence, cutting out the previous rights-holders of the original recordings. Having said that, it surprises me to read this kind of article. I would think these artists would want to hold on to these rights as long as they could. As it is, literally, the cash cow.

But maybe I’m wrong.

Apparently, lots of artists have been doing this. Large acts like Paul Simon, Dr. Dre, Justin Bieber, Phil Collins/Genesis, Keith Urban, Justin Timberlake, and Sting.