Pete Townshend Sells Name, Image, and Music Rights in New Deal: Reports

The Who’s Pete Townshend has reached a deal with Primary Wave that will focus on the English rocker’s name, image and likeness.

Although the band’s co-founder previously sold his publishing and other interests to Spirit Music for a reported $100 million a few years ago, Primary Wave will also acquire certain music rights, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, who placed terms of the deal at nine-figures.

“Moving forward with my creative and performative work with Primary Wave, at this time of my life when most creatives might be slowing down, is a joy for me,” Townshend said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “Their entire team exhibits an energy that is truly stimulating. Challenging too. I need that.”

Primary Wave said it will be working in tandem with Spirit Music to further place the Who’s catalog in more films and television programs. “There is no rock music without the genius of Pete Townshend,” Adam Lowenberg, Primary Wave’s chief marketing officer, added in a statement. “An artist, innovator and songwriter who stands alone in his own category of icon and legend. We are extremely honored to partner with Pete on his future endeavors.”

Rolling Stone has reached out to Primary Wave for further comment.

Last year, Townshend, 80, told Rolling Stone that he still was hellbent on pursuing new ideas and creative outlets.  “I’ve got maybe 10 years left as a creative,” he said. “So I’m doing all kinds of interesting things, theatrical projects, art projects, book projects, working. I’ve done four record productions in the past couple of years. I’ve just done a thing with my friend, Reg Meuross, a song cycle about Woody Guthrie called Fire and Dust. I did an album with the Bookshop band. They write songs about books. I produced an album with a young indie band called the Wild Things.”
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Primary Wave has been in the business of snapping up catalogs and image rights from some of music’s biggest names over the past few years. This February, it acquired Britney Spears’ massive catalog, and bought a 50 percent stake in The Notorious B.I.G.’s estate last March. The company has also reached deals with the estates of Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, Prince, and Cars leader Ric Ocasek. Stevie Nicks sold her publishing rights to the company in 2020.

Acquisition deals can be extremely lucrative for artists, allowing them to receive a significant payout and relieving them of the time-consuming responsibility of overseeing an entire estate and catalog of music.