Red Hot Chili Peppers Sell Music Catalog to Warner for $300 Million

Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold their music catalog to Warner Music Group for more than $300 million, reports Billboard. The deal includes all of the band’s recorded output, including their 13 studio albums, which reportedly generate around $26 million annually. Although the band owned their recorded catalog independently for the past year, during which they were allegedly seeking $350 million for the package, Warner is a logical buyer to foot the bill, as the label originally released Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication.

This deal is not to be confused with the big Red Hot Chili Peppers’ sale in 2015, when Hipgnosis Songs Fund bought their publishing rights for around $150 million. Those rights are set to change ownership again: On May 11, Sony announced it had partnered with a Singaporean sovereign investment fund, GIC, to acquire the entire catalog of Hipgnosis, now known as Recognition Music Group, in a multi-billion dollar deal.

In 2022, Red Hot Chili Peppers dropped two albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen, which remain their most recent records. They now join the ranks of other high-profile artists who have sold their catalogs, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Justin Bieber, while artists like Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa are reversing course by buying back their own material.