Universal Music has just bought a 26% stake in Chord Music Partners for $240 million. Chord Music, worth $1.9 billion, is the company behind superstars John Legend and the Weeknd. This gives Universal, worth over $53 billion, some control over the music of these superstars.

Similarly, earlier this month, Sony bought half the rights to Michael Jackson’s song collection from his estate, which is valued at $1.2 billion. According to the New York Times, this is deemed the ‘richest transaction’ for a single artist’s work and endorses the star power of MJ, who died 15 years ago. This comes as Michael Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson is set to play MJ in an upcoming biopic.

There is still big business in music, as several artists have recently sold their music rights. Bruce Springsteen sold his entire collection to Sony for an estimated $550 million, while Bob Dylan sold his catalogue to them for between $150 million and £200 million. Justin Bieber sold his Music catalogue for $200 million and Kat Perry for $225 million. Let’s not forget the Taylor Swift empire that is raking in over a billion from world tours, endorsements, perfume, merchandising and her various other business interests.

The music industry is expected to grow substantially from 2023’s $28.29 billion to around $46.62 billion by 2028. While the world is looking to big tech for investment, perhaps diversification into the music industry could be a good bet.