Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold their entire recorded music catalogue to Warner Music Group.
This deal, which is reportedly worth more than $300 million, will see the band relinquish full control of their master recordings to the label, with whom they have worked under since their 1991 release, 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik'.
It was reportedly financed via a joint venture between Warner Music Group and Bain Capital, an investment group, which launched a $1.2 billion fund last year to purchase high profile music catalogues. Warner Music Group will now collect future income generate by streaming, radio plays, sales and licensing.
This comes after the band had also agreed a deal with Hipgnosis, now known as Recognition Music Group, selling their publishing rights to their music in a deal worth $140 million, according to reports.
Up until now, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' bandmembers had controlled the rights to their music catalogue, which was thought to have generated almost $26 million per year.
The band's latest albums, 'Unlimited Love' and 'Return To The Dream Canteen' from 2022, were both hugely successful commercially, having reached the top three in both the US and UK albums charts.
Last month, a new documentary about the late Chili Peppers founding member, Hillel Slovak, was released on Netflix, which featured a new AI voiceover of the late musician. Slovak died of a drug overdose in 1988 aged 26.
The documentary featured a range of interviews from surviving bandmembers, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, as well as early drummer, Jack Irons, Slovak's brother James, and girlfriend, Addie Brik. Slovak was eventually replaced by Frusciante.
But a month earlier, the band said they "had nothing to do" with this documentary.
"Dear people of the universe, about a year ago, we were asked to be interviewed for a documentary about Hillel Slovak. He was a founding member of the group, a great guitarist, and friend", the band said in a statement at the time. "We agreed to be interviewed out of love and respect for Hillel and his memory".
"However, this documentary is now being advertised as a Red Hot Chili Peppers documentary, which it is not", they added. "We had nothing to do with it creatively. We have yet to make a Red Hot Chili Peppers documentary".
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