Justin Bieber's record-breaking pop hits from "Baby" to "Sorry" are no longer his after the superstar sold the rights to all his early career music.
The Canadian-American pop star's six albums, including his most recent album "Justice," are part of the massive catalog sale deal with Hipgnosis, a U.K-based music investment company.
Top artists like Sting, Bob Dylan and Shakira have in recent years sold rights to their catalogs for massive sums, but at 28 Bieber is the youngest superstar singer to do so. Hipgnosis acquired Shakira's catalog in 2018.
Bieber's publishing copyrights, songwriter's ownership, master recordings and all rights of his entire catalog of recordings made through 2021 are now owned by Hipgnosis. That covers 290 titles, including hits like "Peaches" "Beauty and the Beat" music that Bieber has been releasing since he was 13.
The deal's financial details have not been disclosed, but Billboard Magazine reports that the sale was worth an estimated $200 million.
"Justin is truly a once in a generation artist and that is reflected and acknowledged by the magnitude of this deal." Scooter Braun, Bieber's longtime manager, said in a statement Tuesday.
All of Bieber's six official studio albums have been certified platinum or multiplatinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and he's recorded 33 singles that have been designated platinum or multi-platinum globally. A song or album that sells more than a million copies receives platinum certification, while works that surpass two million sales become multiplatinum.
Bieber is the eighth most listened to artist in the world on Spotify, with 69 million monthly listeners and over 30 billion streams. His video for "Baby" has been streamed more than 2.9 billion times on YouTube.
"The impact of Justin Bieber on global culture over the last 14 years has truly been remarkable," said Merck Mercuriadis, the founder of Hipgnosis Song Management.
Mercuriadis said that Bieber is a defining artist in the streaming age and "the acquisition ranks among the biggest deals ever made for an artist under the age of 70."
Lawsuit Alleges That TikTok Was Aware Of Risks Its Platform Posed To Kids and Teens
TikTok was aware that its design features are detrimental to its young users and that publicly touted tools aimed at limiting kids' time on the site were largely ineffective, according to internal documents and communications exposed in a lawsuit filed by the state of Kentucky.
The details are among redacted portions of Kentucky's lawsuit that contains the internal communications and documents unearthed during a more than two year investigation into the company by various states across the country.
Kentucky's lawsuit was filed this week, alongside separate complaints brought forth by attorneys general in a dozen states as well as the District of Columbia. TikTok is also facing another lawsuit from the Department of Justice and is itself suing the Justice Department over a federal law that could ban it in the U.S. by mid-January.
The redacted information — which was inadvertently revealed by Kentucky's attorney general's office and first reported by Kentucky Public Radio — touches on a range of topics, most importantly the extent to which TikTok knew how much time young users were spending on the platform and how sincere it was when rolling out tools aimed at curbing excessive use.
Beyond TikTok use among minors, the complaint alleges the short-form video sharing app has prioritized "beautiful people" on its platform and has noted internally that some of the content-moderation metrics it has publicized are "largely misleading."
The unredacted complaint, which was seen by The Associated Press, was sealed by a Kentucky state judge on Wednesday after state officials filed an emergency motion to seal it.
When reached for comment, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said: "It is highly irresponsible of the Associated Press to... Read More