They were Princess Diana's favorite rock band. Released an album that remained on the UK charts for over 1,100 weeks. They were the first musicians to sell over 1 million copies of an album on CD format. And to add to their achievements, a dinosaur was named after their lead singer in 2001.
Dire Straits emerged from the seething undercurrents of London's 70s music scene in Deptford, South London. The band’s lead guitarist and singer, Mark Knopfler, alongside his brother David Knopfler, bassist John Illsley, and drummer Pick Withers, cut through the punk-dominated zeitgeist with their 1978 self-titled album. It was a breath of fresh air – forging punk and disco to create rock-and-roll that catapulted them to fame with the breakout jazz-inflected hit "Sultans of Swing."
Rise to Stardom
The band’s lead guitarist and singer, Mark Knopfler, is known for his distinctive wry observational lyrics inspired by events that one least expects to trigger his creative genius. With "Sultans of Swing,” he took inspiration from a lousy band in a small pub in 1977. “There’s a dusty little Dixieland jazz band, and almost nobody [was] in but there were some young lads over in the end of the pub playing pool in their baggies and their platforms and all of that. I was just there to have a couple of pints. At the end of the night, the trumpet player or whoever does the announcement says, ‘Well, right, that’s it. Time to go. We are the Sultans of Swing.’ And you couldn’t be less assaulted by anything if you were in that band on that night in that pub,” he shared in an interview.
As soon as he left the pub, he wrote a song inspired by that moment, but housemate Illsley wasn’t satisfied. Knopfler decided to redo the chord and the rest was history. After recording a demo in 1977, it soon became popular and reached record executives who offered them a contract with Phonogram Records.
The band continued to build their discography with albums like “Communiqué” and “Making Movies,” but it was the 1985 release of “Brothers in Arms” that fast tracked them into rock royalty. With its polished production and the global smash hits "Money for Nothing" and "Walk of Life," the band also pioneered the then-emergent CD technology, which turned their release into a must-have album of the era.
Lasting Legacy
To promote “Brothers in Arms,” the group went on a tour in 1985 performing in 100 cities across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It included a slot in Live Aid at Wembley Arena in London in July 1985 with Sting as guest vocalist. “It’s delightful to be in a position where you can do something,” Mark said after their Live Aid performance.
After wrapping up the tour, he embarked on a solo career, which led to the dissolution of the band. They held a number of reunion shows and released their sixth and final studio release, “On Every Street” in 1991. The band made a final world tour in 1992, which was attended by 7.1 million fans.
Dire Straits won four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards for Best British Group, and two MTV Video Music Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, but Mark, however, did not attend the event.
Still, keyboardist Guy Fletcher, who joined the band in 1984, acknowledged Mark in their speech during the event, “Do you know, it occurred to me that I never thought Dire Straits as a particularly cool band, but even though somebody today said to me that 'Money for Nothing' was actually cool. But then we weren't really there to be cool; we were there for the music. And when you've got a combination of things like the chemistry and the band and the songs that Mark brought to the table, it's kind of hard to get it wrong. And we've had so many great songs and so much stuff to play with."
As rock-and-roll icons, there’s no denying why Dire Straits is regarded by Classic Rock magazine as the biggest British rock band of the 80s.
Catalog Sales
Royalty Exchange has sold multiple listings of Dire Straits’ sound recording royalties. In December 2023, a listing was sold for $130,000, which was 21.4 times the value in the last 12 months.
And just recently in June 2024, another listing was purchased for $175,000, 21.46 times the value in the last 12 months. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the catalog is 25.84%, over the last five-year period, while the Dollar Age of the catalog is 39.71, which means that it has been generating consistent earnings for a significant period.
Included in the listing is a portion of the manager's share of sound recording royalties generated by the entire catalog of the band, as well as the solo catalog of Mark Knopfler and John Illsley.
It’s a massive portfolio with all six studio albums including, “Brothers In Arms,” and smash hits like "Sultans of Swing," "Money For Nothing," and "Walk of Life", plus their music videos, live albums, and any existing or future best-of compilations.
“Brothers in Arms” won two Grammy Awards as well as Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards. Rolling Stone magazine also included in the list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003.
"Money For Nothing," the second track in the album, is known for using the network slogan "I want my MTV." Although Mark and Sting share songwriting credits for it, keyboardist Alan Clark clarified in a 2022 interview that it was his idea. “ rehearsals when Mark first played ‘Money For Nothing’ to the band, there was no intro and no ‘I want my MTV’. It started with an early version of that guitar riff. During a break in rehearsals, when most of the band were out of the room, I started creating the intro on my keyboards, singing ‘I want my MTV’. By the end of the day, the track had an intro. That’s the short version. For the record: the idea was mine.”
The song reached number 1 for three weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 in the UK. It eventually won the Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 1986 Grammys.
Earnings Performance
The recently sold catalog recorded $7,473 in earnings in 2023, up by 95% from 2020. It reached its peak of more than $10,000 in 2021.
Streaming is the leading source of earnings for this listing with $4,984, followed by Physical Sales with $1,548. The band has more than 18 million monthly listeners on Spotify with “Sultans of Swing” reaching more than 1 billion streams.
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