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The Beach Boys join artists such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Mick Fleetwood in selling their music rights.

The Beach Boys have sold the rights to their music, becoming the latest artist to hand over copyright to another party (not Hipgnosis this time). 

They join an ever growing line of artists (mostly from the 60’s & 70’s) who have sold off the rights to their back catalogues. 

The Beach Boys haven’t just sold the rights to their music but the whole brand too. Industry veteran Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group snapped the rights to their entire brand and music in a deal that is yet to be made public. Azoff now owns their master recording, the rights to Beach Boys’ name, their likeness and a share of their publishing rights and all memorabilia. 

The deal does allow the band to own an interest in their assets, but Azoff’s Iconic will have all the power in business decisions. 

Speaking to Rolling Stone CEO Olivier Chastan explained that “The Beach Boys, in a sense, are not just a band. They’re a lifestyle. They’re a consumer brand. And they’ve never really exploited that.”

He also teased what fans can expect from the Beach Boys brand, with an interesting in new technologies “That includes VR, AR, 3D, CGI, natural language processing, et cetera”. He continued, “That, to me, is probably the most interesting aspect of what’s going to transform our business. In five years, I could send you a text and say, ‘At 2 p.m., let’s put our Oculus Rift glasses on, and let’s go see the Beach Boys record ‘Good Vibrations’ at Western Recorders.”

With the gold rush in full effect you can expect more older artists to be snapped up by the likes of Azoff and Hipgnosis, who have been the most prevalent during this. Recently they snapped up the rights to Mick Fleetwood’s solo music and his work with infamous rock band Fleetwood Mac.