How Much Is Dolly Parton’s Catalog Worth?

When Dolly Parton was considering selling her music recording and publishing assets back in 2021, she was shopping catalogs which combined had net publishing and net label shares approaching $10 million, say some suitors and other financial sources who were aware of the deal.

At the time, the rumor was that her management team was seeking about $500 million; now, other sources suggest discussions were more along the lines of a $230 million valuation.

Whatever the price, a deal never closed, and it’s unclear if Parton pulled the deal or a suitor never completed it.

The year before that rumor circulated, Parton told Billboard she was contemplating how to put her estate in order.

Now, following her passing this week at the age of 80, some wonder if Parton left instructions that her music assets be sold — and if she did, what assets she owned, and what the numbers could be.

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But how much of that $17.5 million in revenue she takes home, as well as what is owned assets (known as an active investment) and how much is royalties (known as a passive investment) is less clear.

Active music assets are more highly-sought-after than passive music assets, and therefore carry a higher valuation multiple.

In 2021, when Parton was testing the waters to sell her music assets, she was coming off the second-biggest year for her catalog in the past decade, according to Luminate data.

In 2020, a year largely defined by the COVID pandemic, her catalog generated 764,000 album equivalent units, likely spurred by a new Christmas album, A Holly Dolly Christmas , with an hour-long TV special; high-profile philanthropic work, including a YouTube bedtime story series, “Goodnight With Dolly,” for children; and a Netflix holiday musical film, Christmas On the Square .

And the growth in streaming at the time also helped spur activity: during the period of 2017 through 2019, her catalog annually averaged about 256,000 album consumption units, or one-third of 2020’s total.

That helps explain the valuation of her catalog when she was shopping the deal, as the assets were at a high-water mark following 2020.