The Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) are shopping for suitors to bid for their recorded music catalog. Their asking price is a massive $350 million or upwards. This includes their all time hits “Californication,” “Under the Bridge,” “Snow (Hey Oh),” “Otherside,” “Give It Away,” and “Can’t Stop.”
The Los Angeles band formed in 1982 owns 13 studio albums and other releases via Warner Music Group. Although we are still not sure if they own the first four albums issued via EMI, currently owned by Sony. Nonetheless, all rights possessed by the band are up for sale, including whatever they own of those EMI records as per sources.
Red Hot Chili Peppers: If the Music Catalog Fetches $350 Million, How Would Their Entire Discography Fare?
To know the answer to the question of how much their entire body of work would sell for, we have to dig deeper. Altogether RHCP have released 13 studio albums, two live albums, and 12 compilation albums. Studio albums include the eponymous Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984), Freaky Styley (1985), The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987), Mother’s Milk (1989), Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), One Hot Minute (1995), Californication (1999), By the Way (2002), Stadium Arcadium (2006), I’m With You (2011), The Getaway (2016), Unlimited Love (2022), and Return of the Dream Canteen (2022).
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According to Billboard sources Eric Greenspan of Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobster Younger & Light has been forerunning a recorded music catalog deal, as he did for their publishing rights in 2021. Hipgnosis had been the final buyer for their music publishing assets. Back then, they bought them for $140-150 million.
So, if their music catalogue sells for the $350 million asking price, the assets for their complete body of work will amount to as much as $500 million. However, if sources are to be believed, the music catalogue is to be sold for $325 to $340 million.
Billboard sources estimate the Net Label Share (NLS) of the catalogue to be $20 million. This is considering $26 million in revenue minus other expenses like production and distribution. However, it’s still unclear if all the potential suitors were offered the same sets of recorded assets.
