According to a recent New York Times article, Bruce Springsteen’s music catalog was sold for $550 million. According to Billboard, after deducting costs of production and distribution, about 20% of revenues, the master recording and publishing catalogs earn $17 million per year.
So a rough estimate of the Price / Earnings ratio for the Springsteen vault is 32x.
If you’re paying more than this for a company, even in an inflationary period with low interest rates, you should probably make sure that the earning power and sustainability of that business is of The Boss quality.