Linda Ronstadt Sells Recorded Music Assets to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group

Legendary singer Linda Ronstadt has sold her recorded music assets to Irving Azoff’s new venture, Iconic Artists Group. According to the announcement, Iconic will partner with Ronstadt and her team (specifically longtime manager John Boylan and personal assistant Janet Stark) to market her catalog.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed; the overwhelming majority of Ronstadt’s hits, including Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou,” Eagles’ “Desperado,” and The Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved,” were covers.

Ronstadt becomes the most recent artist to sell off her intellectual property, and the latest acquisition for Azoff’s company, which jumped into the booming catalog-acquisition business relatively late but has made deals in recent weeks with the Beach Boys and David Crosby, who, along with Ronstadt, are long familiar to Azoff, an artist manager and executive who made his name on the Southern California rock of the early 1970s with the Eagles and others.

While artists from Bob Dylan to Calvin Harris have sold their publishing or recorded-music assets over the past few years, this more-encompassing move seems most similar to recent deals made by Primary Wave, which has not only acquired song-based assets but also artist brands and likenesses, such as their 2017 deal with the Bob Marley estate.

“I’m very pleased about this partnership,” said Ronstadt. “It’s extremely gratifying to be in the company of Irving Azoff, his team, and his family of great artists, many of whom have been my friends and colleagues for years. It feels like home.”

Chairman and CEO of The Azoff Company Irving Azoff commented, “In 1972 when I arrived in Los Angeles to pursue my dreams in the music business, as fate would have it, I soon thereafter became best friends and manager to Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Without Linda Ronstadt and John Boylan, there would have never been an Eagles. We were friends and family and grew up together, and what a ride it has been. The countless tours together with the Eagles and Linda and their collaborations are the backbone of the history of Southern California music. For Linda and John to entrust us with the honor of furthering her work is one of the most satisfying moments of my career. Linda’s talent is unparalleled, but her courage and commitment to make important music of many genres is her legacy. We will preserve that legacy for her at all costs. Thank you, Linda and John. We won’t let you down.”