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Lorde Signs $2.5 Million Publishing Deal

The most wanted signature in the music business right now has been secured.

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Just about every publishing company on the planet has been trying to secure the signature of young New Zealand singer Lorde over the past few months – she's got the number one song on the American singles charts after all – and today it's been revealed that she inked a deal last week.

It's the not-so-well-known Songs Music Publishing that have secured the publishing rights for Lorde's music and they've paid a healthy USD $2.5 million for the privilege, Billboard report, though this was apparently not the highest bid of the lot. Other publishers have told the Wall Street Journal that some bids got as high as $4 million, but Lorde's manager Tim Youngson said they decided to go with a group who would nurture her creative career.

Lorde co-writes the majority of her material with a fellow New Zealand songwriter Joel Little, who already signed to Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a group that dropped out of the race for Lorde's signature as the bids starting getting very high.

Songs have been chasing the 17-year-old artist since February of this year and partner Ron Perry spent a large amount of time in New Zealand mid-year, attending 12 of her live shows and introducing her to songwriters.

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The company is also home to Diplo, Nelly, Pharrell, the Weeknd, Conor Oberst and M83's Morgan Kibby.