Red Hot Chili Peppers To Queens, Top Bands Selling Their Music Catalogs

Red Hot Chili Peppers (Instagram @chilipeppers)

JAKARTA - The world's legendary bands start selling copyright one by one over their music catalogs. A number of big names have done it, especially those over the age of three to five decades.

Financial factors are said to be the main reason they are willing to sell master songs and albums. The copyright is sold at fantastic prices, which do seem tempting.

Most recently, the band from California, Red Hot Chili Peppers will reportedly sell the catalog they have released. There are at least 13 albums with their copyright and master holding since the era of Anthony Kiedis et al under Warner Music.

For the 13 album license, RHCP is said to have cost around USD350 million, or the equivalent of 5.7 trillion rupiah. That doesn't include their first four albums when they were still on the EMI label.

Apart from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, here are the aging bands who chose to sell their music catalogs. Some of the prices make you shake your head.

Pink Floyd

In October 2024, the London rock unit, Pink Floyd, sold its music catalog to Sony Music. With a price tag of 400 million dollars, this figure was agreed upon by both parties.

Along with members' relationships that don't get along too well, selling catalogs can be a solution for the band's finances. They also did not show any desire for a reunion tour, so their income would not be as big as when it was still active.

KISS

The iconist band, KISS also did the same thing by selling their entire catalog, brand names and IPs to Pophouse, a Swedish-based music and entertainment investment firm.

It was not disclosed how much the agreed figure was, but some foreign media estimated that the amount reached more than 300 million dollars.

Queen

Losing a legendary vocalist makes Queen's formation unequal for tours and live shows in general. However, their works are still very valuable and continue to be admired today.

Brian May et al decided to sell their band catalog to Sony Music, which broke the record for the most expensive price. The deal figure is said to reach 1.27 billion dollars, so the most expensive of all time.