Cash don't lie: Shakira sells 100% of her music publishing rights

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Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagicShakira is the latest artist to jump on the “sell all your songs” bandwagon.

Music Week reports that the Latin superstar has sold 100% of her music publishing rights to Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited.  The deal includes Shakira’s catalogue of 145 songs, including her portions of “Wherever, Whenever,” “Hips Don’t Lie”, and her latest hit with Black Eyed Peas, “Girl Like Me.”  It doesn’t include any songs she’ll write in the future.

In a statement quoted by Music Week, Shakira said, “Being a songwriter is an accomplishment that I consider equal to and perhaps even greater than being a singer and an artist. At 8 years old — long before I sang — I wrote to make sense of the world.”

She adds, “Each song is a reflection of the person I was at the time that I wrote it, but once a song is out in the world, it belongs not only to me but to those who appreciate it as well.”

The monetary amount Shakira pocketed for the deal wasn’t disclosed, but Hipgnosis has been on a spending spree recently when it comes to buying up catalogs.  In November, it acquired a bunch of them, which included hits by fellow Latin crossover artists Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez.

In the past year or so, Hipgnosis has spent well over a billion dollars for shares in, or outright ownership of, catalogs that include 10 of Spotify’s top 30 most-played songs of all time.  It also bought stakes in the catalogs of legendary rockers Neil Young and former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

By Andrea Dresdale
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