Red Hot Chili Peppers Sell Catalog to Warner for Over $300M

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold their recorded music catalog to Warner Music Group in a deal valued at more than $300 million, according to multiple reports.

The transaction, completed through Warner's joint venture with Bain Capital, accounts for nearly half of the $650 million the partnership has invested in music catalogs since launching its $1.2 billion acquisition vehicle last year. The catalog encompasses the band's master recordings, including hits such as "Californication," "Scar Tissue," "Can't Stop," "Under the Bridge" and "Otherside." Warner will now control future revenue from album sales, streaming, radio play and licensing deals generated by these recordings, which are projected to produce around $26 million annually.

The band, formed in the early 1980s and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, has maintained a longstanding relationship with Warner Records. It signed with the label in the early 1990s and has released every album since its 1991 breakthrough "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" through the imprint. The group remains one of the music industry's top live acts, consistently selling out stadiums worldwide.

Reports of the sale surfaced after rumors...