The Red Hot Chili Peppers has sold its recorded music catalog to Warner Music Group (WMG) for more than $300 million, a source confirms with Billboard. The company purchased the catalog via its $1.2 billion joint venture with Bain Capital, which is aimed at acquiring both recorded music and publishing rights.
Billboard was first to report that the Chili Peppers was shopping its recorded catalog in February 2025, with sources saying the band was seeking up to $350 million. At the time, some sources told Billboard a deal had already been reached, and that WMG was the most likely buyer, but money hadn’t yet changed hands.
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Sources previously told Billboard the band owns its 13 studio albums and other releases issued by WMG in the U.S., but Billboard couldn’t determine if it owned its 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.
The Hollywood Reporter first reported news of the sale finally being executed on Friday (May 8), after WMG announced it had acquired $650 million in recorded music and publishing catalogs via the Bain joint venture so far.
According to Billboard estimates published last year, 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.
News of the sale to WMG comes five years after the band sold its music publishing catalog to Hipgnosis for between $140 million and $150 million. The publishing assets and recorded music catalog were both shopped by law firm Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobster Younger & Light, according to sources.
WMG declined to comment. Eric Greenspan, the lawyer who had been shopping the Red Hot Chili Peppers deal, didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
