Buying a Piece of Bob Marley’s Song Catalog, and His Enduring Legacy (Published 2018) (2024)

When Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records, first met a journeyman musician named Bob Marley in 1972, he had a feeling that the young man might find success.

“He had a kind of aura about him,” Mr. Blackwell, 80, recalled in a recent interview. “I had an idea that he could have an impact.”

But Mr. Blackwell said he did not imagine the kind of pop-culture sainthood that Marley would ultimately achieve: tens of millions of albums sold, instant name-and-dreadlock recognition around the world, and an estate that, in Forbes’s estimate, earned $23 million last year, partly from the sale of family-branded products like speakers, coffee and Marley Natural cannabis.

While the family of Marley, who died in 1981 at 36, handles most aspects of his estate, Mr. Blackwell controls the rights to Marley’s music publishing catalog, including the copyrights to classic reggae songs like “One Love” and “Three Little Birds.” On Saturday Mr. Blackwell signed a $50 million deal with Primary Wave Music Publishing, a boutique New York music company, the latest in a string of high-profile transactions reflecting how streaming has boosted the value of music catalogs.

“Basic publishing is absolutely important, but it’s not very exciting,” said Mr. Blackwell, who speaks in a slow, soft British accent but carries two cellphones that chirp constantly. “But now it is the music business. Record companies used to manufacture, and that was the difference between a record company and a publishing company. All that is really gone now.”

Under the deal, Primary Wave will control 80 percent of Mr. Blackwell’s share of two catalogs: Marley’s songs and Blue Mountain Music, a publisher that Mr. Blackwell set up in 1962, which has reggae hits by Toots & the Maytals and rock classics by Free (“All Right Now”) and Marianne Faithfull. Blue Mountain also has rights to U2 songs, but those are excluded from the deal, Mr. Blackwell said.