Sony to Pay Almost $4 Billion for Bieber, Neil Young Catalog

Sony Music is finalizing a deal to acquire a music catalog from Blackstone Inc. that includes works of Justin Bieber and Neil Young in one of the largest such deals in music history, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sony is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Recognition Music Group, which either owns or manages the rights to more than 45,000 songs. Sony plans to buy Recognition through a joint venture with the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, which will pay between $3.5 billion and $4 billion, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the negotiations are private.