Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie has sold her 115-title song catalog to Hipgnosis, making her the fourth of the band’s five members to sell their publishing rights within the past nine months.

In January, Lindsey Buckingham also sold 100 percent of his publishing rights to Hipgnosis, which has spent more than $2 billion in the past three years to acquire the rights to a collection of popular songs from artists, including recent deals with Shakira, Barry Manilow, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Neil Young.

Earlier this year Mick Fleetwood also made a similar deal with BMG, while Stevie Nicks sold off rights to her work to Primary Wave, which recently acquired a large portion of Prince’s rights, in December of 2020.

Hipgnosis has acquired worldwide copyright, ownership, and financial interest, including the writer’s share of McVie’s compositions and neighboring rights, according to the official announcement.

“Christine McVie is one of the greatest songwriters of all time, having guided Fleetwood Mac to almost 150 million albums sold and making them one of the best-selling bands of all time globally,” said Merck Mercuriadis, founder Hipgnosis, in a statement. “In the last 46 years, the band has had three distinct writers and vocalists but Christine’s importance is amply demonstrated by the fact that eight of the 16 songs on the band’s greatest albums are from Christine.” Continue reading Christine McVie Sells 115-Song Catalog, Including Fleetwood Mac Songs, Solo Material | American Songwriter →

Posted by Christobel Hastings
28 Dec 2019

She’s the longest-serving female member of Fleetwood Mac, and the group’s most successful singer-songwriter, but Christine McVie has always been overshadowed. But in a BBC documentary profile, Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird, the unsung hero of one of the world’s biggest bands finally gets to take the spotlight

There is one quiet moment of reflection in the BBC documentary, Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird, that perhaps sums up its subject more than anything else in the 90-minute retrospective of rock music history. It comes when Christine McVie, the longest-serving female member of Fleetwood Mac, and the group’s most successful singer-songwriter, speaks affectionately about her longtime friend, Stevie Nicks: “I could no more do twirls in chiffon than Stevie could do blues on the piano.” As she acknowledges her friend’s affinity for the spotlight, she showcases her brilliant talent for saying so much with so few words. It was this gift, we discover, that was intrinsic to the band’s success, and one that has ultimately allowed Fleetwood Mac to connect with people all around the world for over five decades.

How and why the driving force behind one of the world’s best-selling bands was overlooked for so long is a question that is slowly unravelled in this fascinating profile of the legendary singer-songwriter, which traces McVie’s early beginnings in Birmingham, the British blues explosion in 1960s London, and her first foray into music. We learn that McVie was working as a window dresser in the department store Dickins & Jones, until she moved back to Birmingham to join her old friends Andy Silvester and Stan Webb in a blues band called Chicken Shack. Although she was initially tasked with playing keys and singing background vocals, when the band scored a hit with a cover of Etta James’ I’d Rather Go Blind with McVie on lead vocals, it quickly became evident that she was destined for greater things. Continue reading “Finally, Fleetwood Mac’s unsung hero Christine McVie is getting the spotlight she deserves” | Stylist →