Claudio Baglioni, how the sale of the record catalogue to Sony Music works
The Roman singer-songwriter also cedes the masters from 2004 onwards to the major label. And in the meantime, he announces the farewell tour that will end in 2026
3' min read
3' min read
Faced with the finger pointing at the moon, there are those who look at the moon and those who look at the finger. Looking at the moon is certainly more romantic, but focusing on the finger is sometimes no less interesting, especially on the side of... anatomical knowledge. And so, while everyone is talking about Claudio Baglioni's direction from the stage after the next thousand days, through a series of activities (live and otherwise) that will end by 2026, we want to focus on the news that is a corollary to the news: Sony Music, former record company of the national Claudione, has completed the acquisition of his record catalogue.
What Sony Music bought
The acquisition concerns the masters (i.e. the recordings) that Claudio Baglioni churned out from 2004 onwards, which belonged to the Roman singer-songwriter himself and were managed by Sony Music through a licensing agreement. The contract was due to expire in the coming months 'and so,' the major's Italian ceo Andrea Rosi explains to Il Sole 24 Ore, 'we preferred to reason on a long-term perspective: rather than renewing, we directly took over the catalogue'. We are not talking about the masters of Baglioni's super-classics, of records like Questo piccolo grande amore (1.5 million copies sold since 1972) or La vita è adesso (4 million copies since its 1985 release) already in the belly of Sony Music, which had inherited them from Rca Italiana and Cbs. And we are not even talking about publishing, co-owned with Universal Music Publishing and Curci. We're talking about the masters of the albums Q.P.G.A. (2009), ConVoi (2013) and In questa storia, che è la mia (2020), to which are added five live discs, six best of and two covers discs.
Catalogue Enhancement Strategies
.'Having brought these materials back home,' Rosi continues, 'is a huge operational advantage for us. We are successfully pursuing strategies that concern the valorisation of the heritage of Italian singer-songwriters with the new generations, we do it for Lucio Dalla and Fabrizio De André, and the Baglioni operation does not shy away from this logic. On catalogues, we have learnt to work with a frontline approach: it is a strategy that pays off, in the age of streaming. And in this key, having all Baglioni's masters is definitely an advantage.
The value of the deal
.The economic value of the sale is top secret, but it is known that operations of this kind are based on multiples of the average turnover of the last five years of a given repertoire. If we reason in terms of streaming, Baglioni's entire repertoire (including the super-classics, in short) travels on Spotify at 829,000 listeners per month. To be clear: one Sfera Ebbasta is on 7.8 million listeners. Baglioni's most successful song on Spotify is This Little Big Love, which has totalled 34 million streams since it has been on the platform. Lazza's Cenere, the most listened-to song of 2023, has totalled 138.8 million plays since its release. We are, however, making academic arguments that leave time to be found: 'It is not certain that the audience counts, even in the future, will remain the same as they are now, with this pattern favouring compulsive listening,' Rosi concludes. Or, as the man himself sang: 'Things change to live/ And live to change'.
