Pearl Jam signs globally with Universal Music Publishing

Pearl Jam have signed a global publishing agreement with the Universal Music Publishing Group. It covers their entire back catalogue including hits as Alive, Jeremy, Daughter and Better Man, Eddie Vedder’s solo work, and new songs which will come on their next album.

Their manager Kelly Curtis said, "I’m thrilled to finally have a great partner that I can entrust with the legacy of the Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder catalogues. I’m excited for what lies ahead with UMPG." 

Pearl Jam have sold 60 million albums worldwide, half of these in the United States.

"It’s been almost 25 years since Pearl Jam busted the door open of the ’club’ that hosts a very exclusive group of artists," UMPG Chairman and CEO Jody Gerson said. "We are delighted that they have entrusted us with their amazing catalogue and couldn’t be more excited to be a part of their evolving career that will endure for decades to come."

Pearl Jam is hotly tipped to return to Australia as part of its 25^th anniversary celebrations. The Seattle band’s last visit was for Big Day Out 2014.

After last year’s Latin American tour where they drew a quarter of a million fans to nine shows, Pearl Jam return to the road through North America for 22 dates. These include headline slots at Bonnaroo in Tennessee and the New Orleans Jazz Festival and two shows at New York’s Madison Square Gardens. The first leg begins in April and runs through to August 9.

The band will donate $3 from each ticket sold to its Vitalogy Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works in community health, the environment, arts and education and social justice. Recently, they donated US$367,000 to the crisis in Flint, Michigan, where high levels of lead have contaminated water supply to city residents.

It’s been three years since their last album Lightning Bolt. But they’ve been working on ideas for their 11^th studio record. In a Twitter Q&A last year, manager Curtis observed, “They are always in and out of the studio and constantly writing.”