New Version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin” Sells for $1.5 Million at Auction

Bob Dylan sings on this unique, newly recorded record “Blowin’ in the Wind” sold at an auction at Christie’s in London Thursday for over its estimated value — going for 1.2 million pounds, or just under $1.5 million in U.S. dollars.

Under current exchange rates, the actual winning bid is $1,441,045 in dollars. The 1.2 million pounds sales price was well over the estimate the auction house had posted for the record, which was in the range of 600,000 to 1 million pounds (or, in U.S. dollars, $716,000-$1,194,000).

Although two people could be seen on the live feed volleying back and forth as the top bidders, consulting with buyers on the phone, the auction’s winner was not immediately revealed.

The “Blowin’ in the Wind” record was the only remotely freshly minted item in Christie’s “Classic Week” sale. The other items being auctioned prior to Dylan’s new record being the climax of the sale were more along the lines of an Egyptian limestone statue from circa 2400 B.C., which went for 5 million pounds, and a Stradivari violin that had a starting bid of 6 million pounds.

The new version of Dylan’s 1962 folk classic was produced by T Bone Burnett with a small band of musicians, with Dylan recorded in Los Angeles and the rest of the group in Nashville. Burnett, who worked for years to create analog technology, recorded the track directly to an entirely new kind of acetate record. The 10-inch disc is compatible with normal record players, despite being a new format. It has a higher degree of fidelity and a coating that is almost impervious against normal wear-and tear.

The people who have heard the recording thus far have been limited mostly to potential bidders at listening sessions at Christie’s in London, New York and Los Angeles, and at a few select playbacks Burnett held for members of the media and others.

Burnett spoke to Burnett in depth recently Variety — in a story titled “Why Did T Bone Burnett Record a Song With Bob Dylan That Only One Person Can Own? To Disrupt the Art Market” — about the making of the new recording and the intent behind putting it up for auction — and addressed the question of whether the average Dylan fan will ever get to hear it, or whether it really could have just one listener-owner.

Burnett pointed out something “I think it is important to know for people who are concerned about the exclusivity of what we are doing. An Ionic Original does not exist. ‘copy.’It is an original recording. We are not trying to create scarcity. This is It is very rare. It is an original, hand-made recording. We are all conditioned to accept and react to mass production. This is not the case.

“This really started because recorded music has been commoditized to zero over the last 20-30 years. Musicians have to accept that the government, corporations, technologists, record companies, streamers, and other entities can define the value of their music. We have now taken matters into our hands and control both the means and copyright. We’ll be able to explore: What IsWhat is the worth of a song? What? IsBob Dylan singing has real value ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ 60 years after he wrote it, in this environment? And we’re gonna find out.

“But the intention has always been to create a new one-of-one program. In fact, what I’m trying to do is enter a music space in the fine arts market. Because music is to the United States as wine is to France — it’s the most valuable and important part of our culture. And for the last 25-30 years, we’ve had parts of the audience telling us that we ought to put our music out for free. This is a chance for us as artists to work at complete autonomy. It’s something both Bob and I have done to the degree we could for our whole lives, but this is a chance now to do it not just for Bob, but for many other artists who are gonna do this with us, who’ve already signed up. With any luck, this is the way I’ll spend the rest of my working life, doing these beautiful one-of-one pieces of high art.”

Burnett said that the decision about whether it will be available to the public, other than the winner of the auction, would rest largely with the buyer. However, any public distribution would likely occur if the audio is placed up in a museum space. Digital reproductions would also be unlikely, if any, to be prohibited.

Any commercial distribution would have to be the result of a three-way deal between Dylan’s record company, Sony Music, his publishing company, Universal Music Publishing Group, and whoever bought the record, which has not yet been revealed. But Burnett’s contention has been that the record was not really conceived for that public a dissemination, although he considers it one of the best things he’s ever worked on.

To those who are worried they won’t get to hear the track, Burnett said, “They shouldn’t worry about that, because there are thousands of Dylan recordings they can hear for free. Listen, that will work itself out in time. I can tell you, though, when Cézanne was in Aix-en-Provence painting a landscape, he wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, man, I hope everybody gets to see this!’ or ‘How is everybody gonna get to see this?’ He was just thinking, ‘How do I get this down? How do I get this on this thing?’”