Bruce Springsteen sold his entire music catalog for $500 million.
Bruce Springsteen sold his living work's copyright and publication rights to Sony for $500 million (£376 million).
According to many US reports, the deal would give Sony ownership of 20 studio albums, adding classics like Born To Run, The River, also Born In The USA.
A 20-time Grammy winner, Springsteen made about $15 million in sales last year. The deal follows Bob Dylan, Blondie, and David Bowie's similar sales.
In September, Warner Music bought Bowie's worldwide music rights, and Dylan sold his catalog of more than 600 songs to Universal Music Group last December for a reported price of $300 million.
The deals provide instant financial security to artists and their property. At the same time, rightsholders hope to make money by generating new revenue sources for music through film and TV licensing, merchandise, covers and show fees.
In May, at an investor relations meeting, Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer said the company had spent $1.4 billion on acquisitions over the past six months. That includes a multimillion-dollar deal to acquire Paul Simon's back catalog rights.
The Springsteen deal would be the most expensive if the music industry billboard Bible figures were correct.
The sale was not made public, and representatives from Sony and Springsteen did not immediately respond to inquiries from the BBC.
Springsteen is one of the most victorious rock musicians and has recorded for Sony Columbia Records throughout his career.
Born and raised in New Jersey, he once said he wanted to make an album with words like Bob Dylan, who sounded like Phil Specter, and sang like Roy Orbison.
It remains a mere encapsulation of his style and the key to understanding his broad appeal - though he frequently and successfully experimented beyond these limits.
His reputation was strengthened in 1974 when music critic John Landau reviewed one of his shows with the E Street Band in Boston.
"I saw rock and roll right before my eyes last Thursday at the Harvard Square Theater," Landau wrote. "And I also saw something else: I saw the future of rock and roll, and his name was Bruce Springsteen. And one night, when I was feeling young, he made me feel like I was listening to music for the first time.