Madonna Refuses to Sell Her Song Catalog: ‘Ownership Is Everything’
Madonna has no interest in selling her music catalog, despite other high-profile artists like Bruce Springsteen and Justin Timberlake cashing in on their tunes.
“They’re my songs. Ownership is everything isn’t it?” the “Papa Don’t Preach” singer said in a recent interview with Variety. “I mean, that’s why [manager Guy Oseary is] buying [NFTs].”
Though Madonna, 63, is standing firm in not wanting to sell her catalog, she’s certainly not opposed to adding to it. The Grammy-award-winning singer said she’s currently on the hunt for “interesting, fun ways” to rerelease her catalog and “introduce my music to a new generation.”
“The whole thing with ‘Frozen’ was so fun, but I woke up one day and went, ‘I’m sick of living in the past!'” she said. “I want to go on tour again, I’m a creature of the stage. That is my happy place.” A Sickick remix of Madonna’s 1998 hit “Frozen” featuring Fireboy DML went viral on TikTok last year, and the star capitalized on the renewed popularity by officially releasing the remix in December.
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“I was like, ‘Hey, wait a minute. What is this? This is my song,'” Madonna said. “It all happened by divine inspiration, I guess, because then once I heard them, I wanted to make more of them and do new versions of them that had different people singing on them and doing their take on it.”
She released Finally Enough Love, which includes her favorite 16 remixes of her chart-topping dance hits that have filled clubs worldwide for four decades. An extended version of the compilation featuring versions of all 50 songs that topped the chart will be released on August 19.
“From where I started, making music in my apartment on the Lower East Side, and then having to go to a recording studio to record it, to where I am now and how I’ve been working, it was a good lesson on how music has changed and the way we make music has changed, the way we listen to music has changed,” she said in May. “It was kind of historical education, listening to my own remixes.”
With 2022 marking 40 years since Madonna’s recording debut, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer announced a partnership with Warner Music Group last August, giving the company representation of her entire body of work (17 studio albums plus singles, soundtrack recordings, live albums and compilations).
“This new deal heralds the launch next year of an extensive, multi-year series of catalog releases that will revisit the groundbreaking music that made her an international icon,” reads a statement. “For the first time, Madonna will personally curate expansive deluxe editions for many of her landmark albums, as well as introduce unique releases for special events, and much more.”
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