Primary Wave acquires a stake in the publishing catalogue of Bob Marley

Primary Wave acquires a stake in the publishing catalogue of Bob Marley

Primary Wave - the US based publishing company founded by Larry Mestel in 2006 - just acquired a stake in the publishing catalogue of Bob Marley as part of a $50m agreement with Island Records founder Chris Blackwell.

With this new deal, Primary Wave is now controlling 80% of Blackwell’s share in two publishing catalogues: the Marley songbook and Blue Mountain Music – an independent publishing company Blackwell built on copyrights written by the likes of Toots & The Maytals, Free and Marianne Faithfull.

By the way, the Marley Estate will continue to own more than 50% of the reggae star’s catalogue overall.

According to the New York Times, Blue Mountain also manages rights to U2’s hit catalogue, but the band’s songs are exempt from the Primary Wave deal, which was finalized on Saturday, January 13th.