Red Hot Chili Peppers, photo by Marc Millman

Red Hot Chili Peppers have reportedly sold their recording catalog to Warner Music Group for more than $300 million. The deal, conducted through WMG’s $1.2 billion catalog and publishing rights acquisition joint venture with Bain Capital, arrives just over a year after the band was first said to have started shopping their discography. 

Warner’s deal includes both the nine studio albums originally released through the major label, beginning with 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ first four albums, released by EMI. It’s unclear if the deal includes the band’s name and likenesses, or just their master recordings catalog, which generates roughly $26 million in revenue annually, per Billboard. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the sale on Friday, May 8, after WMG and Bain disclosed in an earnings report on Thursday that the joint venture had acquired $650 million in recorded music and publishing.

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ catalog sale does not include the funk-rock quartet’s publishing rights, as the band sold those in 2021 to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, now known as Recognition Music Group, for about $150 million. Recognition Music Group is currently in talks to be acquired by Sony Music Group, another major player in the publishing rights gold rush. The Chili Peppers are in good company among other high-profile acts like Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen, who have all sold off their recorded music to various labels and music investment funds. In 2024, Variety reported that Queen’s catalog and likeness had been acquired by Sony for a staggering $1.27 billion, in a complex deal estimated to be the largest of its kind.