Bob Dylan has sold his entire songwriting catalog to the Universal Music Publishing Group. According to a New York Times report: “The deal, which covers Dylan’s entire career, from his earliest songs to the tunes on his latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, was struck directly with Dylan, 79, who has long controlled the majority of his own songwriting copyrights.”

“It’s no secret that the art of songwriting is the fundamental key to all great music, nor is it a secret that Bob is one of the very greatest practitioners of that art,” said Lucian Grainge, the chief executive of the Universal Music Group, in a statement (quote via Times article). Meanwhile, Dylan himself has not commented on the sale.

While the price was not disclosed, it is estimated at more than $300 million, according to the Times. “Dylan’s deal includes 100 percent of his rights for all the songs of his catalog, including both the income he receives as a songwriter and his control of each song’s copyright,” read the report. “In exchange for its payment to Dylan, Universal, a division of the French media conglomerate Vivendi, will collect all future income from the songs.” However, the agreement does not include the rights to songs Dylan writes in the future.

The report elaborated on why Dylan’s catalog is so valuable from a music publishing standpoint: “Dylan is also the kind of writer whose work music publishers especially salivate over. Not only has his work stood the test of time, but most of his songs were written by Dylan alone and have been frequently covered by other artists — with each use generating royalties. According to Universal, Dylan’s songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times.”

Dylan received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, the first songwriter to win the award. Recently, a set of Dylan’s papers, which included unpublished song lyrics, sold at auction for $495,000.

For more information, read the full New York Times report.