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Give it away, give it away, give it away now
Give it away, give it away, give it away now
Give it away, give it away, give it away now
I can't tell, if I'm a king pin or a pauper
Under the Bridge is still my favorite...
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner Sometimes I feel like my only friend Is the city I live in, The City of Angels Lonely as I am, together we cry
Unimpressed by material excess
I came here to write this!
This is one of the reasons we can't have proper soundtracks in video games or non AAA TV shows anymore or re-releases of old TV-shows anymore.
I just feel bad for all the pension fonds backing this Bain Capital PE joint venture who will have an off chance of making back their investments with the current state of IP and AI trends.
A valid concern generally, but if you're concerned about soundtrack quality, RHCP has done the world a favor by locking it up inside Warner.
In a world full of endless AI slop, wouldn't original recordings become more valuable over time?
Re: the "low price", they'd already sold their publishing right in 2021 for $140MM, so this is the master rights they sold for 300. By comparison, Springsteen sold both his together to Sony in 2021 for $500MM.
I don't think they're just selling the mastering rights here, it's the rights for the recordings that are being played that is being sold here.
> The new deal with Warner Music Group hands over the rights to the official recordings, meaning the label will profit from any further streaming, radio play or album sales.
Edit: I'm stupid, you mean "master rights", which is correct, they're getting the rights of the masters. Your typo made me think of the act of mastering music, not the "masters".
That does seem like less than I would expect!
It always makes me a bit sad that everyone knows RHCP but less so their early stuff. Blood sugar sex magik is a funk masterpiece. Didn’t help that for years Spotify used the singles versions of the tracks so the levels were all over the place and it was basically unstreamable.
Freaky Styley is their funk masterpiece. haha
$300M is a lot though.
Out in L.A.
I'm surprised the number is this low! Queen sold their catalogue for $1.27bn and while RHCP are clearly not on their scale I thought they were pretty high up there, especially given how long they've been active.
All subjective and all that. But I feel like 300M vs. 1.27B is exactly where I would have personally pinned their ratio difference.
To roughly frame it: if we made another golden record, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had 4 Queen songs and 1 RHCP song.
Beyond a certain amount, the actual number becomes meaningless especially for people who already have dynastic wealth not even counting this. It's just what they happened to negotiate.
It's quite a retirement package.
It was also a different market in 2024. Much more fluid private credit industry, deal volume was much higher[1] and under very different interest rate regime[2], also generated music was just getting somewhat decent and the risk probably wasn't being factored in to long term value yet.
[1] The Queen deal came at end of series of high profile catalog acquisitions all 500M+ buys - Springsteen, Jackson(half), Bob Dylan.
[2] Interest rate while high was trending down and widely expected to even reach to pre-pandemic levels in few quarters.
yeah also surprised.
and as mentioned elsewhere, RHCP is still young enough to crank out a few more albums and tour. Bruce Springsteen kept cranking until his 80s and sold the catalog for $500M
I assume the band is basically tapped out and ready to rest on laurels
Sting reportedly got $300 mil back in 2022
Queen made music. RHCP make noise.
Hopefully someone can remaster/re-release their albums with less awful mastering from the master recordings.
Most copies, including the copies on Streaming Services for Califonication are genuinely unlistenable. [0].
[0] - https://web.archive.org/web/20221117074108/https://dr.loudne... [1] - https://web.archive.org/web/20221117074109/https://dr.loudne... [2] - https://web.archive.org/web/20221117074108/https://dr.loudne...
This is true for a lot of bands. Guns n' Roses, Iron Maiden, Metallica.
Every credit card rewards program will "give it away now" from now on
> By the way,
> I tried to say
> CRAZY BIG BOB IS HAVING ANOTHER CRAZY SALE THIS MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!!!
> so don't wait for Dani, come on down and say "I love you" to a pre-owned Nissan!
Is there any write up about how these economics work? How much does the catalog generate in a year?
The band must be past peak popularity, with listens continuing to decline year after year.
listens continuing to decline year after year.
Streaming music is only the tip of the iceberg.
Most TV commercials are using 30-year-old songs. Add to that streaming series (think Stranger Things), movies, public spaces, internet radio, actual radio, and hundreds of other licensing opportunities await.
Good for them. I have a memory of first seeing them in their video True Men Don't Kill Coyotes† around 1984? and thinking "wow these guys are terrible". In hindsight, they were very 90s and pretty ahead of their time.
$300 million, all songs about California
Wow, I just a saw a YouTube video of Flea's house for sale in the LA suburb of La Crescenta for sale. Super nice house. Strangely I also saw Steve Vai's house for sale in LA at the same time. Also super nice house.
Relatively small amount compared to the billions we see thrown around for AI startups a couple of years old.
Janis Joplin in a car commercial was the funniest thing ever and it oddly made sense. Most people are just not cool enough to die from alcohol or drugs and they become the boomers.
That honestly sounds like a good deal for the buyer at first blush but can’t say I’m an expert here
As someone not in the industry, what exactly does it mean? The band no longer can perform the music? They no longer get royalties? They no longer can profit at all from the music? They no longer have control over where/how it's sold? Or, something else? What exactly is Warner/Bain buying?
I'm always weirded out by this process because it's such a squishy thing. How much are the rights worth? Well, take the revenue from the last 5 years and project it out. But they released a new album in 2022, so that year is going to look strange isn't it. Oh and they have a documentary this year so presumably that spiked some stream as well didn't it.
Also, if they hadn't sold they would've benefitted by releasing new albums they would got an extra bump from people listening to the old stuff, they don't get that now. Oh and how do you model the revenue bump when Flea dies and everyone streams RHCP non-stop for a week.
It's also a weird principal agent problem because RHCP primarily influence how much revenue these rights are worth, but once they sell the rights then the rightsholder's revenue stream is highly sensitive to what RHCP do in the future. What is RHCP sell the rights, then come out as Nazis, then buy the rights back and then recant? You know what I mean?
Hard to tell what the value of music will be in 5 years
Can't wait for the RHCP biopic in 2028!
I have such a love/hate with this band. They have some great songs. Great musicians. John Frusciante is one of my favorite guitarists. But they are such cheeseballs, and in the case of Anthony Kiedes, pretty creepy.
I'd rather it be WMG than IP Venture Partners Acquisition Round 7 LLC like some bands have done.
That’s all they got?!
Now I can pirate guilt free
PSA: this article is re-reporting the original story at:
> Rumours of the Chilis selling their catalogue first arose last year, with sources telling Billboard that the rockers were allegedly seeking around $350 million. Now, The Hollywood Reporter reports[1] that the band has finally made a deal with Warner Music Group, with the label paying over $300 million for all of the band’s master recordings.
[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-industry-news/...
Feels cheap
Music and streaming is severely under attack from an effort/commercial viability perspective given tools like Suno[1]
Not exactly saying this is the reason for their sell, but I'd imagine a lot of professional musicians are feeling the desire to exit the industry.
[1] https://www.npr.org/2026/05/02/nx-s1-5804489/music-listeners...