Did Justin Bieber sell his masters because he's going broke? Let's clarify this situation (BONUS: Jailey Update)
Justin Bieber seen leaving The Twenty Two in London, England on February 22.
Originally I wasn’t gonna make a post about this but a lot of you guys have been DMing me and emailing me about this because most of you don’t understand what’s going on, so I’m here to help.
What happened?
Justin Bieber sold his share of his publishing rights to Hipgnosis Songs Capital, for $200 million. This means they own his entire music catalog.
Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images
This doesn’t mean he sold the rights to his masters… because he never owned the rights to his masters, to begin with.
He sold his share of publishing rights to his music catalog, which was only a small percentage. According to Billboard, Hipgnosis purchased his publishing and artist royalties, but not the actual master recordings, which still belong to UMG.
I know thanks to Taylor Swift who taught us a failed class in an artist’s masters, it made everyone think that “bUT tHaT’s yOUr aRt.”
No. The label gave you money to create your art and promote therefore it’s their contractual right if that’s what’s written.
That’s why many years later and I’m still not on Team Taylor for her masters because it was such a privileged crybaby story when the truth is… no one in the industry owns their masters. That’s why they buy it back decades into their career.
That is with the exception of what your record deal states but for the most part, the label owns the artist’s masters which is the case for Justin. He’ll probably buy his masters in 20 years, who knows? But he didn’t sell his masters for $200 million.
The fact that he only sold a small percentage of his publishing rights for THAT much, shows you how much his masters are worth. It’s literally $100 million less than what Taylor’s masters were sold for. And the more time goes on, the more they will be worth.
Is he going broke?
his style is so funny
No, that is a lie made up by Selena Gomez’s braindead robots and this will be the last time I mention her name in this post in order to preserve all of our brain cells, I got you guys.
This deal is actually huge for Justin mainly because he’s considered a “newer” artist when you compare him with those that have been in the industry for 20 or 30 years.
Billboard writes, “Typically, newer catalogs like Bieber’s are considered riskier investments since they don’t have as much history behind them to prove staying power. That means they often sell for lower multiples than those of classic acts. Bieber’s success, however, has been undeniable since his 2009 debut album.”
A lot of icons are selling their catalogs, including Bruce Springsteen (sold for $550 million) and Paul Simon ($250 million) who sold for huge deals.
Justin isn’t the only artist selling, but he’s the youngest.
Billboard writes, “Last year, Justin Timberlake, Leonard Cohen, Nile Rodgers, Kenny Chesney, Neil Young and Nelly Furtado all sold some of their rights to Hipgnosis. Sting, David Bowie‘s estate, Phil Collins and his Genesis bandmates, Future, Frank Zappa‘s estate and Neil Diamond also sold certain assets to investors in 2022.”
I’m not too clear on the business lingo and why artists are running to sell their publishing rights to Hipgnosis Songs Capital, but it seems like they know something we don’t. Maybe one of you guys can educate us more in the comments, y’all be spilling incredible knowledge.
One source tells me that the music industry forecast isn’t looking too bright with artists losing money in order for their songs to be pushed on the new platforms that are shaping the music industry, such as TikTok.
They have to sacrifice their rights being used on these platforms (and now with Youtube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and etc.) because at the end of the day, this can make or break an artist’s career.
But why sell it to begin with?
There’s a downside that they’re not publishing and reportedly what pushed Justin to sell his rights, is because he fcked up when he canceled the tour.
Tour is where a celebrity makes all their money so because Justin canceled a huge chunk of the Justice Tour, he needed to make that money back somehow. We’ve talked before about owing your label money in regard to someone else.
Now listen, I wasn’t in on the meeting with Team Bieber nor do I care to be so I’m not totally sure what’s going on, that’s all in the contracts that I don’t have access to unless Scooter wants to forward them to me.
All I know is that him selling his publishing rights and getting THAT much money was a huge win for him which I’m assuming he probably used part of the money to give back to his label. Because they had a lot planned for the dates that got canceled and he has to pay back all the merch that isn’t getting sold anymore, all the tickets, and so on.
So it’s like he had a problem and a God-sent solution was sent to him.
But he did lose out on money by not finishing the tour. That doesn’t mean money left the bank, it means the money didn’t go in because he never completed the tour. He was expected to make a record-breaking tour gross so the fact that he didn’t finish the tour pissed off a lot of people as I told you here.
Jailey Update
So we’ve had our share of good and bad posts on this blog. I literally spilled tea on their marriage which wasn’t good and explained their dynamic.
I also said I wasn’t going to talk about someone’s marriage again for all the jobless losers who have nothing better to do than theorize based on what they WANT to happen, not what’s actually happening.
But I come with an update.
And it’s boring.
First, why’d they serve so hard in these photos?
Justin and Hailey are doing really well. The first few years of marriage were rough because they were getting to know each other on a level that neither of them have done with someone else. Sometimes Justin was a burden to Hailey because of his trauma but they wanted to prevail against all odds and for the sake of God.
Again, they are extremely religious people and I feel like that’s always left out of the narrative.
Justin really wants to be a dad but he understands Hailey’s wants because she’s living her dream life. She’s finally getting everything she wanted. Not only did she get the man that someone is crying about every night, but she managed to make something for herself and that is her skincare brand.
So the topic that’s going back and forth now is they don’t want to put a pause on Hailey’s career when she has a long time to be a mom. She’s also dealing with other health issues. I know she opened up about her ovarian cyst the size of an apple, plus there was that stroke.
There were no plans for a baby last year because of both of their health issues. It was a very hard year for them.
Rhode is exploding now and had a very successful launch and they are dropping a new line soon so she’s been occupied with that.
And Justin? That mfer loves being on break.
LMAOOOOOO bro what is wrong with him
He is getting into the production part of music more than he’s ever done before. So he’s really into producing, writing, and conceptualizing eras for the future. He also wants to do more songwriting for other artists and you should expect more features this year.
A lot of artist wants to have him as a feature (obviously, he’s Justin Bieber) but he’s trying to do more features that he likes (so more r&b and hip hop) because they’re planning on staying with the pop route for the new eras.
So a lot is going on and Justin & Hailey are managing it surprisingly well.
This is also the longest Justin has been in a healthy headspace and yes he’s had his ups and downs with drugs and mental health crises even during marriage, I never said that man was a straight edge, but with every downfall, it doesn’t fall as hard as he used to so he’s able to come back up.
He hates social media and he has everything controlled and away from him. He’s very isolated and keeps his private life private. Because he’s surrounded by people no longer selling him out to the media, you don’t really see stories being out about him anymore. He’s barely photographed on the regular unless he’s posting on Instagram.
He hangs out with a lot of his own friends but he’s not often photographed. I know yall think you just see him with Hailey, but nah, he has his own people, it’s just not shown.
Hailey is living the IT girl life she’s just trying to move past the disease that keeps trying to bring her back down and let her live the past where the disease is, but what can you do?
I really wanna do a Hailey As A Person post so fingers crossed!
Also, I promise you, I truly promise, I will delete your spam comments so go exercise your fingers somewhere else.
That’s pretty much it. I hope I was able to clarify and you guys enjoyed this post! Let me know what you think in the comments!