Linda Ronstadt has joined David Crosby and the Beach Boys in selling her musical assets to music mogul Irving Azoff's Iconic Music Group. Ronstadt’s deal differs from Azoff’s others in that unlike the Beach Boys, it doesn’t include her intellectual properties, our as with Crosby, her songwriting publishing. Ronstadt instead inked a deal in which Iconic “has acquired Ronstadt’s assets, in a sale that includes name and likeness to promote the masters.”
According to Rolling Stone, “Iconic’s partnership with Ronstadt, her longtime manager John Boylan, and personal assistant Janet Stark will aim to preserve her legacy in the digital era — including working with streaming services and social media, rolling out reissues, focusing on anniversaries, and more.”
Although Ronstadt has retired from making music due to her battle with Parkinson’s disease, she remains in high profile, with the recent career-spanning documentary, The Sound Of My Voice, snagging the Grammy Award for Best Music Film.
Linda Ronstadt said in a statement:
I’m very pleased about this partnership. 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.
Irving Azoff added:
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.
Linda Ronstadt told us that she has mixed emotions on every facet of her career: “My music has always been 80 percent private music and twenty percent what I did for the public, but the public part of it just became so dominant, and I. . . it didn't need to be that way. And I, y'know, I've done it, I've been on the road. I've had an unusually long career. Most people's career's (laughing), don't last as long as mine and nobody would want to, unless you're mentally imbalanced. Nobody would want to keep going out on the road. It's a horrible. . . it's not a nice existence. There's nothing natural about it.”
