Sony Music is in talks since last year, to buy the entire music catalogue of the rock band Queen, including hits like Radio Ga Ga, Bohemian Rhapsody , and another One Bites The Dust fir £790 million ( $1bn).

If the deal goes ahead it would cover Queen’s songs and all related intellectual property including the rights to logos, music videos, merchandise, publishing and other business opportunities.

Universal Music is also said to have been involved, owing to the company’s long standing relationship with the band who signed with the British label EMI in 1972 and remained with the company after it was bought by Universal in 2011.

If the group achieve the $1bn price tag, it will be the biggest deal of its kind, surpassing the $500m (£393million) that Sony paid to acquire Bruce Springsteen’s catalogue in late 2021.

Earlier this year, Sony also acquired a 50 per cent interest in Michael Jackson’s music from the late singer’s estate – at cost of  $600 million ( £472million).

Queen has more than 52 million monthly listeners on Spotify compared to 41 million for Michael Jackson and 20 million for Springsteen,  But Queen remain globally popular and extremely lucrative thanks to the success of the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and the band’s ongoing tours with singer Adam Lambert. Just in the UK the first volume of Queen’s Greatest Hits album sold in excess of 7 million copies, and the 20th biggest seller of 2023, even beating new releases by Ed Sheeran and the Rolling Stones.

The proceeds of the deal will be equally shared between the estate of late singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, Drummer Roger Taylor, and bass player John Deacon.

One complicating factor in the negotiations is the fact that Disney Music Group owns Queen’s recorded music catalogue in North America,  although the band own the rights for the rest of the world., and also retain the global publishing rights – the copyright for the music and lyrics.