Katy Perry sells her music catalog for $225M

[Teletubby 130,996]

Litmus Music, a catalog rights company backed by private-equity giant Carlyle Group LP, said on Monday (Sept. 18) it acquired the rights to Katy Perry’s five studio albums released for Capitol Records, including her Grammy-nominated Teenage Dream.  

According to sources, Litmus paid $225 million for Perry’s stake in the master recording royalties and music publishing rights to her five albums released between 2008 and 2020—One of the Boys, Teenage Dream, PRISM, Witness and Smile. Universal Music Group continues to own the masters to those albums.

Launched in August 2022 with a $500-million-investment from Carlyle’s Global Credit Platform, Litmus has acquired publishing and recording rights of artists from a range of genres, including Keith Urban‘s master recordings and a package of publishing and performance copyrights from super producer benny blanco.
source source

[swakby 4,097]

inb4 Katy’s versions incoming.

[Agunimon 21,470]

Is she done with music?

[FATCAT 58,005]

6 minutes ago, Agunimon said:

Is she done with music?

I'm going to guess she's either in a dire financial situation (unlikely) or she doesn't think her past catalog will sell for higher than it is right now

[littlepotter 73,692]

Damn that's a lot of money. I wouldn't think her catalogue would earn this much going forward so I wonder what made them decide it's worth the investment

[Levine 21,100]

225M is a great deal for a catalog that won't sell anything in a few years. Good job Katy!

[LateToCult 38,741]

And when Gaga sells her catalog to have greater liquid assets to invest into Haus Labs, what then? 

[bionic 40,796]

22 minutes ago, FATCAT said:

I'm going to guess she's either in a dire financial situation (unlikely) or she doesn't think her past catalog will sell for higher than it is right now

tax planning is also a BIG factor, esp with changes the Biden admin are trying to push (have pushed??)

[Dennis 8,390]

31 minutes ago, littlepotter said:

Damn that's a lot of money. I wouldn't think her catalogue would earn this much going forward so I wonder what made them decide it's worth the investment

I constantly hear Last Friday Night. I think her older hits are still popular.

[Mother of Puppies 35,279]

[myluis617 5,333]

Somehow I feel that in the ling run this will make them so much money. Katy has some iconic songs. Artists don't make much in music sales because of the contracts they are under but im sure once you sell the catalog and don't have those contracts splitting profits, this could be very profitable. 

[NATAH 40,062]

what happens when artists do this? do they lose all control of their music?

[bionic 40,796]

3 minutes ago, NATAH said:

what happens when artists do this? do they lose all control of their music?

She's basically exchanging the lifetime of royalties for an upfront lump sum. She still controls the music AFAIK (or at least she controls it as far as she did beforehand)

[Epione 10,896]

Gaga should do this too and funnel all the money to Haus Labs. 

[Bolkins 4,054]

Katy actually makes some crazy money. I was quite surprised at how much she's making with her residency, and then her Idol fee, and now this. For a musician who hasn't had a hit song for however many years she still holds a lot of power.