The Red Hot Chili Peppers sold their catalog to Warner Music Group, which acquired the rights to the music recorded by the group for $300 million. The catalog is estimated to bring in around $26 million annually.
Warner is the label that publishes the albums of Anthony Kiedis and Flea da's band BloodSugarSexMagik from 1991 onwards. The operation is part of a larger deal involving Warner Music Group and Bain Capital, a joint venture that has so far purchased music and publishing rights for $650 million.
Five years ago the band sold the publishing rights, not the recordings therefore, as in the case of the catalog sold to Warner, but the intellectual property of the songs, which originally belongs to the authors. In that case the buyer was Hipgnosis (now Recognition) who paid an estimated sum of between 140 and 150 million. There would be advanced negotiations for the sale of these rights as part of a multibillion-dollar deal with Sony Music.
