Linda Ronstadt has sold her recorded music assets to Iconic Artists Group, the new venture by Irving Azoff, making her the latest rock star as part of a wave of other artists selling their music catalogs.
Iconic Artists will partner with Ronstadt and her team, including manager John Boylan and personal assistant Janet Stark, on preserving her legacy in the digital era and boost the value of her songs to a new generation of fans.
Ronstadt’s catalog includes her own hits such as “You’re No Good”, the duet “Somewhere Out There” with James Ingram and “Don’t Know Much” with Aaron Neville, as well as covers of songs such as Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou,” Eagles’ “Desperado,” and The Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved.”
Azoff and Iconic Artists Groups most recently purchased the song catalogs of David Crosby and a controlling stake in The Beach Boys’ catalog.
“I’m very pleased about this partnership,” Ronstadt said in a statement. “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.”
“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,” Azoff, CEO and chairman of the Azoff Company, said in a statement. “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.”
Ronstadt was recently featured in the Grammy Award-winning documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.” Dubbed the “Queen of Rock,” Ronstadt is the top-selling female rock artist of the 1970s and one of the most artistically diverse recording artists of the last 50 years. She has sung on over 120 albums, with at least 31 gold and platinum records, and sold more than 100 million records worldwide. She’s won 11 Grammys in her career, two Country Music Awards and an Emmy, and her music has inspired artists across rock, country, jazz, opera, Americana, Latin and Broadway. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, honored by President Barack Obama with the National Medal of Arts in 2014 and received the Kennedy Center Honors lifetime artistic achievement in 2019.