Forget “Give it away give it away give it away now,”
Click here to read the full article on SPIN.
the Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold the rights to their song catalog — which includes the hits “Scar Tissue,” “Under the Bridge” and “Californication” — to Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Over the past year, the fund has also purchased stacks in the catalogs of artists like Tom DeLonge, Neil Young, Lindsey Buckingham, LA Reid among many, many more.
Singer Anthony Kiedis won’t be able to sing “Give It Away’s “I can’t tell if I’m a kingpin or a pauper” lyric with a straight face, as the band reportedly netted $140 million for the tunes, Billboard reports.
More from SPIN:
- Nandi Bushell Gets Flea’s Approval With ‘Under the Bridge’ Cover
- Watch Post Malone Cover Black Sabbath and Alice in Chains With Slash, RHCP’s Chad Smith, and More
- Flea Honors Early Red Hot Chili Peppers Guitarist Jack Sherman
Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith and guitarist John Frusciante are the Chili Peppers’ main writers, and their songs generate between $5 million to $6 million a year for publishers, according to Billboard. The sale price for the catalog was about 25 times as much as those numbers.
Over the last year, other big deals have included Bob Dylan selling his songwriting catalog to Universal Music for $300 million, and Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks doing a $100m deal with Primary Wave.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest guitarists of all time, click here.