Pop superstar Britney Spears has sold the rights to her entire music catalogue, the BBC has learned.

Spears, 44, is said to have sold to independent music publisher Primary Wave on 30 December for around $200m (£146m).

The singer - whose protracted conservatorship long dictated her personal and professional life - is known for the hits ...Baby One More Time, Oops!... I Did It Again, Toxic and Gimme More.

Primary Wave did not immediately respond to the BBC’s requests for comment. Representatives for Spears declined to comment.

In January 2024, the singer said she would “never return to the music industry”. Her last song was a duet released with Elton John in 2022.

Primary Wave has also acquired rights to the estates of Notorious BIG, Prince and Whitney Houston.

Details of the sale and the exact price of Spears’ catalogue have not been made public.

High-profile artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, and Shakira recently sold their catalogues too.

Springsteen sold his back catalogue to Sony in 2021 for $500m, and Bieber reportedly signed a $200m deal with Hipgnosis Songs Capital in 2023.

The publisher was founded 20 years ago by music executive Lawrence Mestel after purchasing 50% of Kurt Cobain’s portion of the Nirvana catalogue.

Spears is one of the best-selling female artists, with more than 150 million records sold worldwide. Her catalogue includes nine studio albums since her debut in 1999.

The sale comes after a tumultuous few years for the singer, who in 2021 ended a 13-year-long conservatorship – a legal guardianship that saw her finances and personal life controlled by her father.

The singer published her memoir in 2023 titled The Woman in Me, which detailed her struggles living under the conservatorship.

Her ex-husband Kevin Federline released his own memoir, You Thought You Knew, at the end of 2025.

Source: BBC
--Agencies