Red Hot Chili Peppers Sell Recorded Catalog to Warner Music Group for More Than $300 Million

Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold their recorded music catalog to Warner Music Group for more than $300 million, according to Billboard. The package covers the band’s full recorded output, including its 13 studio albums, which reportedly bring in about $26 million a year.

The band had owned the catalog independently for the past year. They had reportedly been seeking $350 million for the collection. Warner is also an obvious fit on paper: the label originally released Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication.

The sale should not be confused with the group’s 2015 publishing deal, when Hipgnosis Songs Fund acquired the band’s publishing rights for around $150 million. Those rights could change hands again as Sony Music is reportedly in talks to buy Hipgnosis, now called Recognition Music Group, as part of a broader multi-billion-dollar transaction.

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ latest albums are still their 2022 releases, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen. The band now joins a long list of major artists who have sold catalog rights to large companies, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Justin Bieber. Others, among them Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa, have gone the other way and bought back their own material.