# Bob Dylan sells off his songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-sells-off-his-songs/927489
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [December 7, 2020, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-sells-off-his-songs/927489 "2020-12-07T17:12:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2020, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-sells-off-his-songs/927489/1 "2020-12-07T17:12:59Z")
For $300 million not bad for an old guy
> **[Bob Dylan sells his entire catalog of songs to Universal | CNN Business](https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/media/bob-dylan-song-catalog/index.html)**
>
> Bob Dylan has sold his entire catalog of songs, which encompasses more than 600 songs over 60 years, in a "landmark agreement" with Universal Music Publishing Group.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-sells-off-his-songs/927489/2 "2020-12-07T18:00:59Z")
The interesting part of that sale is the extent to which his songs are [directly or indirectly based on folksongs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bob_Dylan_songs_based_on_earlier_tunes) which do not themselves fall under copyright, which means that a lot of Dylan’s musical output may well be public domain to some degree.
The _words_ are Bob’s - and I think most people consider the words to be the most important bit of Dylan songs - but for music scholars the legal status of the tunes remains fascinating.
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-sells-off-his-songs/927489/3 "2020-12-07T19:54:46Z")
I know one song partly based on folk is Girl from north country or North Country girl.
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### Author:  [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-sells-off-his-songs/927489/4 "2020-12-07T20:25:48Z")
Certainly many sings from his folk singer days would be based on melodies from older songs. Fitting new words to old tunes was very common practice is folk circles. “Blowin’ in the Wind” famously draws its tune from “No More Auction Block”, a Civil War era spiritual.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2020, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-sells-off-his-songs/927489/5 "2020-12-08T09:43:02Z")
Note that there’s a link in my previous post to a list of Dylan songs based on older folktunes. It’s a surprisingly long list.