Red Hot Chili Peppers Consider Selling Song Catalog

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are considering selling the rights to their songs. According to Billboard, the band has already begun the process and hopes to receive at least $350 million for their catalog.

Billboard also calculated that the Red Hot Chili Peppers earn approximately $26 million annually from their catalog. Currently, the rights to all albums released on the Warner label belong to the musicians themselves. It is unknown who owns the rights to the first four Red Hot Chili Peppers releases, as they were released on another label, EMI. According to Billboard, the band may have already reached a deal with Warner for the catalog, but there is no confirmation yet.

Recently, many musicians have started selling the rights to their creative work. For example, in the summer of 2024, news broke about a deal with Queen's catalog for $1 billion. A few months earlier, in April, Kiss sold the rights to their music for $300 million to develop virtual tours. In the fall of 2024, the Sony Music label bought Pink Floyd's recordings for $400 million. In 2023, Katy Perry received $225 million for her catalog, and Bruce Springsteen sold the rights to his songs back in 2021 for $500–550 million, according to various sources.

The latest Red Hot Chili Peppers album, "Return of the Dream Canteen," was released in October 2022. It became the band's second release of the year: in April 2022, the musicians presented the album "Unlimited Love." In July 2024, the Red Hot Chili Peppers completed the Unlimited Love tour, organized in support of both albums. Whether the band is going to record something new is unknown yet. Perhaps the musicians expect to spend the proceeds on a creative project, but this is just an assumption.