Stevie Nicks closed a deal to sell a majority stake in her publishing catalog late last month, on the heels of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” hitting the Billboard charts for the first time since 1977.
Music publisher Primary Wave purchased an 80% interest in the copyrights, which are valued at about $100 million, according to people familiar with the deal.
The deal, which includes hits “Edge of Seventeen,” “Rhiannon” and “Landslide,” highlights the soaring value of music in the streaming era. Ms. Nicks’ sale coincides with recent buzz around “Dreams” fueled by a viral TikTok video of a man skateboarding while listening to the Fleetwood Mac former No. 1 single. The song, written by Ms. Nicks, landed at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October, logging its best-ever week of streams and download sales in the U.S.
Ms. Nicks and Primary Wave plan to partner on marketing, branding and digital strategies to generate more revenue from her catalog, according to the publisher. Outlets for music are rising in new corners of the digital world, from videogaming to social media to advertising.
Over the past five years, owning the rights to music has become more valuable as revenue from music streaming has grown. Vivendi SA sold a 10% stake in Universal Music Group to Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. for 3 billion euros, equivalent to $3.37 billion, late last year, valuing the world’s largest music company at more than $33 billion. Los Angeles-based investment firm Shamrock Capital Advisors LLC recently bought Taylor Swift’s early recording catalog for over $300 million—about what celebrity talent manager Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC paid for the entirety of Ms. Swift’s former label, Big Machine Label Group LLC, a year and a half ago
