Primary Wave Music has struck what it says is a ‘multimillion-dollar deal’ with singer, songwriter, and producer Stevie Van Zandt.
According to the announcement, the company says it will manage the artist’s music publishing and recorded music catalogs, as well as a portion of his name and likeness rights.
Terms of the deal also include a stake in producer royalties from Van Zandt’s work with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, along with band member and producer royalties from his long collaboration with Bruce Springsteen.
Amongst this work includes albums such as The River and Born In The U.S.A., as well as songs like Hungry Heart, Glory Days, Dancing in the Dark, Born in the U.S.A., and more.
For more than five decades, Stevie Van Zandt’s songs have been performed by such stars as Nancy Sinatra, Meat Loaf, Ronnie Spector, Damian Marley, Brian Setzer, Michael Monroe, Gary U.S. Bonds, Jimmy Barnes, Black Uhuru, and many others.
Highlights of the deal include some of the artist’s biggest hits, among them Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ I Don’t Want To Go Home and This Time It’s For Real, and I Am A Patriot (famously covered by Jackson Browne, Pearl Jam, and others), and the theme song for his 2019 Netflix series, Lilyhammer, and Darlene Love’s holiday hit, All Alone On Christmas (the latter featured in such films as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and Love Actually).
According to a press release, terms of the deal also include access to Primary Wave’s marketing team and publishing infrastructure, which includes digital strategy, licensing, synch opportunities, and film & TV production.
The news marks the latest deal for Primary Wave and comes two weeks after the company acquired the music rights of Robby Krieger and the late Ray Manzarek of the legendary US rock band, The Doors.
“They have an incredible track record for being creative and proactive. Looking forward to seeing what kind of fun we can have with these songs I’m still really proud of.”
Steve Van Zandt
“Couldn’t be more excited to explore this partnership with Larry and Primary Wave,” says Van Zandt.
“They have an incredible track record for being creative and proactive. Looking forward to seeing what kind of fun we can have with these songs I’m still really proud of.”
We couldn’t be more excited to have him join the Primary Wave family and our team is ready to dig in to this incredible catalog.”
Samantha Rhulen, Primary Wave Music
Samantha Rhulen, SVP, Business & Legal Affairs at Primary Wave Music, said: “Stevie’s legendary career speaks for itself.
“His talent as a songwriter and producer is renowned. We couldn’t be more excited to have him join the Primary Wave family and our team is ready to dig in to this incredible catalog.”
Other deals struck by Primary Wave include the acquisition in November of the copyrights to hit Whitney Houston songs as part of a deal for about 60 songs written by songwriters Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill, of American pop-music duo Boy Meets Girl.
In October, Primary Wave struck a $2 billion deal with financial giant Brookfield, which included the acquisition of a minority stake in Primary Wave and Brookfield investing $1.7 billion into a new “permanent capital vehicle”.
As MBW reported in October, Primary Wave still has a little over $1 billion in unspent Brookfield investment after an initial $700 million was spent acquiring some rights from Primary Wave’s Fund 1 and Fund 2.
(Fund 3 was born in 2021. MBW’s sources suggest it was backed with $800 million in capital. The launch of Fund 3 coincided with a $375 million investment into Primary Wave by Oaktree Capital.)
The new “permanent capital vehicle” is essentially a fourth fund – in which Primary Wave itself is a minority ownerMusic Business Worldwide