Pop icon Britney Spears, 44, has sold the rights to her entire music catalogue, the BBC reports. The deal with independent music publisher Primary Wave was completed on December 30 for an estimated $200 mln (£146 mln).
Spears, whose career and personal life were long shaped by a conservatorship, is known for hits including …Baby One More Time, Oops!… I Did It Again, Toxic and Gimme More.
Part of a Growing Trend
The sale follows a series of high-profile catalogue deals in the music industry. Artists including Bruce Springsteen, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake and Shakira have sold their catalogues in recent years. Springsteen sold his back catalogue to Sony in 2021 for $500 mln, while Bieber reportedly signed a $200 mln deal with Hipgnosis Songs Capital in 2023.
Primary Wave, founded 20 years ago by music executive Lawrence Mestel, owns rights to the estates of Notorious B.I.G., Prince and Whitney Houston, and acquired part of Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana catalogue in its early years.
A Career Defined by Success and Struggle
Britney Spears is among the best-selling female artists of all time, with over 150 mln records sold and nine studio albums since her debut in 1999.
The sale comes after a turbulent period in her life. Spears ended her 13-year conservatorship in 2021, which had placed her personal and financial decisions under her father’s control. She published her memoir, The Woman in Me, in 2023, detailing her experiences under the conservatorship.
Her ex-husband Kevin Federline also released a memoir in late 2025 titled You Thought You Knew. Spears’ last release was a duet with Elton John in 2022, and she had previously stated she would «never return to the music industry.»
Kursiv also reports that Chappell Roan announced that she is no longer represented by the Wasserman Agency, led by Casey Wasserman.
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