Well, you didn't think that they were gonna buy Eminem's catalog, did you?

I am not in the music industry, so in most cases the ownership of a particular music catalog doesn't really register in my brain. The exceptions have been celebrity cases, such as when Paul McCartney bought the music catalog of Buddy Holly, which inspired his then-friend Michael Jackson to buy the music catalog of John Lennon & Paul McCartney.

Well, I ran across this music catalog sale in the New York Times:

The estates of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II have sold the rights to the legendary duo’s songs and musicals — including “South Pacific,” “The Sound of Music” and “Oklahoma!”

And who bought the catalog, you may ask?

...to Imagem Music Group, an investment arm of a huge Netherlands-based pension fund, the company announced on Tuesday.

A pension fund? For songs that are decades old? Well, the songs are still popular.

Imagem was committed to maintaining high artistic standards for both future productions and the commercial licensing of specific songs, which include “My Favorite Things,” “Some Enchanted Evening” and standards from other Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals like “Carousel” and “The King and I.”...

André de Raaff, the chief executive of Imagem, said in an interview that he believed that musical theater classics like Rodgers and Hammerstein songs were “a very solid investment” for pension money.

You have to admit that Rodgers and Hammerstein songs are a much more stable investment than, say, oil.

More here, including the identity of the cat who almost bought the catalog himself.