Back in 2021, funk/alternative rock icons Red Hot Chili Peppers – who currently have 13 LPs and various EPs, compilations and live collections under their belt – sold their songwriting catalog to Hipgnosis for roughly $140 million. Now, they’re getting more than double that already staggering amount for selling their recorded music catalog to Warner Music Group.
Details of RHCP’s Deal With Warner Music Group
Per The Hollywood Reporter (on May 8), Red Hot Chili Peppers “sold the rights to their recorded catalog” to WMG “in a deal worth more than $300 million, . . . with WMG acquiring the catalog through the company’s joint venture with [American private investment firm] Bain Capital.”
The publication clarified that the deal is part of WMG’s “$1.2 billion joint venture catalog acquisition vehicle” with Bain Capital that was announced in July of 2025. THR add that the $300 million for RHCP’s recorded catalog is only a portion of the “$650 million” Warner Music Group spent “on catalogs” thus far (as mentioned in their May 7 earnings report). WMG have not disclosed what those other catalogs contain, though.
The Hollywood Reporter also noted that rumors had been circling about RHCP “shopping its recorded rights” as far back as February of this year, as well as that Sony Music Group may be acquiring Hipgnosis – now known as Recognition Music Group – in a “multibillion-dollar deal.” Thus, RHCP’s publishing rights might be under new ownership soon, too.
Furthermore, Billboard specified, “Sources previously [said] the band owns its 13 studio albums and other releases issued by WMG in the US” (from 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik through 2022’s Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen). However, Billboard “couldn’t determine if [RHCP] owned [their] first four studio albums (also part of the sale) released by EMI in the U.S. It’s also unclear if the deal includes name, image and likeness rights for the band.”
“According to Billboard estimates published last year,” the publication elaborated, “the Red Hot Chili Peppers master recording catalog generates about $26 million in revenue annually, with the majority of that coming from WMG’s part of the catalog, including such smash albums as Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication.”
For more insights into situations like this, check out Loudwire’s 2022 write-up on why musical artists are selling their catalog rights!
Other Red Hot Chili Peppers News
Back in April, Loudwire included Red Hot Chili Peppers in our breakdown of the longest-running mainstream rock chart No. 1 of each year of the 2000s. Specifically, “Californication” topped the chart for two weeks in 2000, just as “By the Way” did for seven weeks in 2002 and “Dani California” did for 12 weeks in 2006.
The same month, the group appeared in our list of every rock + metal song that passed 1 billion Spotify streams in 2026 since “Dani California” accomplished that feat.
Also, 30-year-old podcaster/writer/social media personality Eileen Kelly recently defended and explained her controversial relationship with 63-year-old RHCP frontman Anthony Kiedis.
For instance, she wrote: “There is something to be said for a man who’s simply had more time to get his shit together, and my much older boyfriend seems genuinely excited to be with me—not like he’s biding his time before he can swipe for someone better. He is fully aware that he’s one lucky bastard.”
Kelly also concluded:
For some, age-gap relationships inevitably function as a site onto which their broader anxieties—about power, aging, desirability and its perceived limits—can be projected. What people assume about me, about him, about the structure of our relationship, often reveals more about them than anything that exists between my boyfriend and me. The relationship itself becomes secondary to what it represents.
But the reality is comparatively unremarkable. From the inside, we’re mostly just two people doing the regular, ongoing work of moving through life together.
Are you surprised by RHCP selling their music to WMG for over $300 million? Let us know!
The Rock + Metal Songs That Passed 1 Billion Spotify Streams in 2026
As the years roll by, rock and metal artists have had songs cross the 1 billion stream threshold on Spotify with increasing regularity.
Quite a lot of the artists below have had other songs reach the milestone in previous years. For some, however, this is their very first entry on Spotify’s Billions Club playlist.
Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita
