How Much Is Garth Brooks’ Music Catalog Worth?
Categoria: Musica
News broke in June that the star was seeking at least $1 billion — far less than what Billboard estimated Dolly Parton’s catalog to be worth. Could it be that high?
Por Billboard | 30/09/2026
The passing of Dolly Parton last month inspired a flood of stories about her musical legacy. On the financial side, this coverage included valuations of her estate — which also led music investors to reconsider the June news that another country music giant, Garth Brooks , was considering selling his music assets. When Billboard looked at Parton’s music assets, i.e., her master recording and publishing catalogs, we estimated that her master recordings generated about $11 million in revenue annually between 2022 and 2025 and that her publishing generated about $6.5 million annually over the same period for a total of $17.5 million. Consequently, Billboard estimated that those assets carry a valuation of $220 million, with about $103 million coming from the recordings and $117 million coming from the publishing. Related How Much Is Dolly Parton’s Catalog Worth? Judge Rules Woman Accused of Shooting at Rihanna & A$AP Rocky's Home Mentally Fit to Stand Trial Billboard to Add Smart Media Albums As Chart-Eligible Sales Formats If Parton’s assets are worth some $220 million, how do Brooks’ music assets, for which he’s seeking a reported $1 billion to $2 billion, shape up against her catalog? First off, Parton’s annual U.S. consumption units averaged 643,000 units over the last six years (2020-2025), which is nearly 45% greater than Brooks’ 445,000 units. Globally, her catalog’s streaming consumption is two and a half times as large, averaging nearly 1.141 billion streams annually, versus annual streams of 414.6 million for Brooks’ catalog. If you look at just the last three years (2023-2025), the numbers are even more in Parton’s catalog’s favor at 644,000 U.S. album consumption units annually versus Brooks’ 375,000 units. Meanwhile, Parton’s global streams are three times larger: 1.305 billion versus Brooks’ 432.3 million annually. Clearly, Parton’s catalog is outperforming Brooks’ catalog, which raises the question: If her catalog is worth an estimated $220 million by Billboard ’s reckoning, how can Brooks’ catalog be worth upwards of $1 billion, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal ? Firstly, a catalog’s numbers are not the whole story in determining valuations. We also have to compare what assets are owned by Brooks and the Parton estate. For example, Parton owned her later-career albums, but most of her big hit albums — representing the bulk of the activity generated by her catalog — are owned by Sony Music, which means she gets paid a percentage of royalties — perhaps a superstar rate of 33%. Meanwhile, Brooks owns his entire recorded catalog and appears to distribute it on his own. That means that after CD and vinyl production costs, he is getting nearly 100% of the revenue from his sales to merchants, which likely means his recorded music catalog is more valuable than Parton’s. On the other hand, Parton’s publishing appears more valuable than Brooks in that she has had a hand in writing some 3,000 songs, either by her