I'm not a huge Bob Dylan fan, but when the 79 year old sold his entire musical catalog for an estimated $300 million, I could hardly blame him. Let's be honest, Dylan has 6 children and what do you think they'd prefer, to become managers of his cumbersome 500+ song discography, or to just inherit cash?
Many classic rock-era musicians are cashing in and letting multinational corporations market their music. I don't know how the Universal Music is going to get their money back on the Dylan deal, but I kind of understand the mechanics of the sale. Once you're a musician that hits retirement age, I don't have an issue with what an artist does or doesn't do with his/her own art.
With that being said, today I read that producer Bob Rock sold the rights to his production catalog to the Hipgnosis Song Fund for an undisclosed amount. I am not in the music business, but I thought that producers were paid up front, I didn't realize that they received royalties.
Let me get this straight, Metallica was arguably the greatest thrash band of all time (up to ....And Justice for All). They met Bob Rock and then became a good rock band. Rock's vision for the Black Album was for it to be marginally edgier than Def Leppard's Hysteria or Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood. (Bob Rock led Metallica to the mainstream, the mainstream did not go to Metallica.) So for moving millions of units of Black Album Pablum, Rock has been rewarded for 30 years up to, and including, another lump sum payment now?
Bob Rock is a straight up shyster.
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