Primary Wave Partners With The Cars For Artist Royalties

Primary Wave has partnered with The Cars to acquire the rockers’ artist royalties, the company announced today (June 4). The deal, which encompasses classic rock staples such as “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend’s Girl” and the Billboard Hot 100 top five hits “Shake It Up” (No. 4) and “Drive” (No. 3), follows Primary Wave’s partnership with Cars frontman Ric Ocasek’s estate on publishing and name, image and likeness rights last year.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Between their self-titled debut album in 1978 and their Door to Door album in 1987, the Boston-bred band scored four top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, adding a fifth with a reunion album, Move Like This, in 2011. The group landed 18 hits on the Hot 100, including four top 10s, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, a year before Ocasek’s death in September 2019.

“Together with last year’s partnership for Ric Ocasek’s publishing, Primary Wave is uniquely positioned to preserve and honor the legacy of The Cars,” Primary Wave senior vp of business and legal affairs Samantha Rhulen said in a statement. “Their music has left a lasting imprint on culture and continues to inspire fans and musicians around the world. It’s a privilege to be entrusted with this partnership.”

Primary Wave has for years been on the forefront of the publishing, branding, marketing and name/image/likeness rights business for artists that it classifies as “icons and legends,” with a portfolio that includes rights from artists like Bob Marley, Prince, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Luther Vandross, The Four Seasons, Stevie Nicks, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson and Bing Crosby. Most recently, the company did a deal with the estate of The Notorious B.I.G. to acquire the late rapper’s catalog and other rights, among other deals.