Song catalog sold

The deal covered his rights in more than six hundred songs, written across six decades, from his earliest records to his newest. No official price was announced, though it was widely reported to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The sale was among the largest of a wave of catalog deals in those years, as investors and publishers paid record sums for the songwriting rights of veteran artists, and it drew attention partly because Dylan had long been seen as fiercely protective of his work. Universal gained control of licensing the songs for films, advertisements and cover versions. About a year later he made a separate agreement selling the rights to his recorded music to Sony, which had long released his albums through Columbia.