Adele Signs £90 contract with Sony

Adele has signed a multi-album contract with the Sony record label with a headline value of a whooping £90m, which if paid out in full would make it the biggest record deal in history.

The singer-songwriter, who was the best-selling artist in the world in 2015, was poached by Sony after her original contract that she signed at the age of 19 with British independent label XL expired.

Adele is already worth an estimated £85m, having generated extraordinary sums from her albums, included more than £35m in sales generated by her latest album 25.

Released in November last year, 25 has been credited with single-handedly reviving album sales across the globe, having sold more than 19m copies to date worldwide. In the US, the album claimed the largest single-week sales for an album since records began in 1991; while her second album, 21, released in 2011, has now sold more than 30m copies globally, making it the most successful album of the past decade.

The deal was brokered by Adele’s manager, Jonathan Watkins, just before Christmas, but until now its very existence – never mind its financial terms – has been kept under wraps. Neither Sony Music, XL Recordings or Adele’s management would comment on the singer’s move. However, industry sources said that Sony had “secured Adele, who’s without doubt the biggest music star in a generation. This is massive”.