Music Business Worldwide is reporting that the rights to Queen’s music catalog is expected to sell for an estimated $1.1 billion USD by the end of summer 2023.

Says Music Business Worldwide: "We’re told that the initial stages of a sale process for the band’s catalog - combining both music publishing and recorded music rights - is underway, and that a full acquisition could be completed by the end of this summer.

Major music companies including Universal Music Group have been in discussions regarding a potential acquisition, we’re told, in addition to players from the world of private equity. If the combined Queen rights sell, say MBW’s sources, a price-tag in excess of USD $1 billion seems guaranteed.

Some have told us they expect the Queen catalog to sell for around USD $1.1 billion; others say the eventual figure will be even higher than that. Either way, should a sale get completed, this would become the biggest single-artist music catalog sale in history, easily surpassing the $500 million-plus paid by Sony Music Group to acquire Bruce Springsteen’s recorded music and music publishing catalogs in late 2021.

A Queen catalog sale is complicated by the fact that Disney Music Group (DMG) owns the band’s recorded music catalog in North America. (DMG has a global distribution agreement with Universal Music Group.)

Queen band members Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon – plus the Freddie Mercury estate – each own equal shares in the company Queen Productions Ltd, which owns the group’s recording catalog outside the US and Canada.

Read the full report at MusicBusinessWorldwide.com.