Britney Spears has sold the rights to her music catalogue, which includes hit songs such as Toxic, …Baby One More Time and Gimme More, according to media reports.
The US music publisher Primary Wave is reported to have completed the purchase on 30 December. TMZ said the sale was confirmed in legal documents, while an unnamed source familiar with the deal corroborated the report to the New York Times.
The terms of the agreement and the price paid for the catalogue have not been disclosed. In recent years, however, the sale of music rights has proved highly lucrative for major artists.
Several high-profile performers have sold their catalogues, including Bruce Springsteen, Shakira, Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake. Springsteen sold his songs to Sony for about $500m in 2021, while Sony acquired Queen’s catalogue for more than $1bn in 2024.
Spears has released nine studio albums since her debut in 1999 and is one of the best-selling female artists of all time. She dominated global pop music for nearly two decades, alongside intense public scrutiny of her private life.
The 44-year-old spent almost 14 years under a conservatorship that placed control of her personal affairs, career and finances in the hands of others. The arrangement was formally ended by a judge in 2021.
In her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, Spears described how the conservatorship shaped her life, including decisions about her diet and family planning. She said it “stripped me of my womanhood” and reduced her to the status of a child.
Spears has not publicly commented on the reported sale of her music catalogue. She has previously said she does not plan to return to the music industry or perform in the United States.
