Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Primary Wave Music has acquired a major stake in Joey Ramone’s music-publishing assets for around $10 million, according to people close to the transaction.
Terms of the deal include non-exclusive rights to license Joey Ramone’s name and likeness, as well as income for songs across the band’s repertoire of music; the news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
While the music-catalog market has been booming for the past several years, with blockbuster deals for catalogs by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen (both for around $600 million), Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, James Brown (all around the low nine figures) and more, this is possibly the first such deal for a punk-era artist, and could open up a new field of opportunity in a rapidly narrowing market.
Formed in 1974 in the New York City borough of Queens, the Ramones initially were lambasted early in their career for the deliberate simplicity of their music — a combination of power chords and pop hooks — but they were indisputably the pioneering punk-rock act and their music has lived far beyond its initial audience, with songs like “Blitzkreig Bop” and its infectious “Hey ho!
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