British rockers Queen noticed a critical spike of their earnings in recent times, owing in no small half to the success of the Oscar-winning 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Almost half a decade down the street from that film’s launch, one would suppose the band’s earnings can be dropping again down once more. Not so.
The newest annual report from Queen Productions Ltd. – the UK-based firm that collects the band’s turnover – reveals that within the fiscal 12 months ending September 30, 2022, the band took in £40.89 million (USD $50.41m at common annual alternate charges as per the IRS).
That’s a rise of 4.3% from FY 2021, when turnover got here in at £39.19 million. (In US greenback phrases, that involves $53.9 million, because the British pound was stronger in opposition to the greenback that 12 months.)
The brand new numbers, obtainable publicly on the UK’s Firm’s Home, give the band a major monetary shot within the arm because it reportedly prepares to promote its recording and publishing rights for what may very well be a record-breaking sum above $1 billion.
Queen Productions is owned in equal elements by the three dwelling members of Queen – Brian Might, Roger Taylor and John Deacon – in addition to the property of Freddie Mercury.
The corporate owns the band’s grasp recordings exterior the US and Canada (the place they’re owned by Disney Music Group), and licenses them worldwide to Common Music Group (UMG) as its distributor and file firm associate.
The band’s publishing rights are owned by one other entity, Queen Music Ltd., and are administered by Sony Music Publishing. Queen Music’s monetary statements counsel its revenue is being paid by means of to Queen Productions.
The band’s royalties did drop just a little within the newest reported fiscal 12 months, to £36.84 million, from £38.92 million the earlier fiscal 12 months, a decline of 5.3%. However total turnover was nonetheless increased within the newest fiscal 12 months, due to “the success of the We Will Rock You theater manufacturing UK tour in addition to a rise in license charges on stay music touring,” the corporate’s report said.
The corporate’s revenue earlier than tax got here in at £22.16 million ($27.41 million), up 31.6% YoY, from £16.84 million ($23.17 million) in FY 2021.
The numbers point out that the increase in Queen’s reputation from Bohemian Rhapsody appears to be having a really lengthy tail certainly.
The corporate’s turnover in FY2022 was greater than triple the quantity in FY2016, earlier than buzz started across the Bohemian Rhapsody film. That 12 months, the corporate’s turnover got here in at £12.34 million ($16.72 million at 2016 alternate charges).
The numbers are so sturdy that Queen Productions’ administrators – the three surviving members of the band – appear to have modified their tune on the corporate’s outlook.
Within the report for FY2021, they predicted that, with the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic fading into historical past, revenue is “anticipated to lower 12 months on 12 months.”
Nonetheless, within the newest report, they state: “Given the success of Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock You in recent times, it’s anticipated the corporate will generate comparable revenue within the 12 months ended 30 September 2023 and within the years thereafter.”
Merely put, Queen is right here to remain.
As of July 2023, the band was the forty ninth hottest musical act on Spotify, down from forty fourth spot a 12 months earlier. However due to there being extra folks streaming on Spotify total, the variety of month-to-month Queen listeners is definitely increased right this moment than a 12 months in the past – 48.45 million listeners, up from 40.3 million.
A number of years in the past, MBW estimated {that a} sale of Queen’s catalog might herald round $1.1 billion. Earlier this 12 months, sources informed MBW that Queen’s catalog might promote this 12 months for nearly that quantity, although different sources prompt the quantity may very well be even increased.
Such a sale would simply surpass the record-setting $500 million-plus that Sony Music/Columbia and Sony Music Publishing paid for the recording and publishing rights to Bruce Springsteen’s total catalog in 2021.
As of Might of this 12 months, the preliminary levels of a sale course of had been underway, involving each music publishing and recorded music rights. Main music firms together with UMG, in addition to non-public fairness teams, have been in discussions concerning the sale.
Bohemian Rhapsody holds the file for highest-grossing biopic of all time, with a worldwide gross of $910.8 million. A sale of Queen’s music rights might put one other all-time file beneath the belt of a band that – 53 years after its formation and 32 years after the tragic demise of its frontman – appears to be as widespread as ever.
All GBP to USD conversions have been made on the common annual alternate charges as printed by the IRS.Music Enterprise Worldwide
