Kiss sells song catalog for more than $300M to company co-founded by ABBA member

Famous rockers Kiss marketed their catalog, brand name identify and IP to Swedish business Pophouse Leisure Team in a offer estimated to be in excess of $300 million, it was announced Thursday.

This isn’t the to start with time the band has partnered with Pophouse, which was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus.

When the band’s present-day lineup — founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as nicely as guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — took the stage at the ultimate evening of their farewell tour in December at New York City’s famed Madison Square Back garden, they ended by revealing digitized avatars of themselves.

The reducing-edge technological know-how was created by George Lucas’ distinctive-results corporation, Industrial Light-weight & Magic, in partnership with Pophouse. The two companies not long ago teamed up for the “ABBA Voyage” display in London, in which supporters could attend a comprehensive live performance by the Swedish band in their heyday, as done by their possess electronic avatars.

The methods in which Kiss’ avatars will be used has nevertheless to be introduced, but Pophouse CEO For each Sundin claims admirers can be expecting a biopic, a documentary and a Kiss working experience on the horizon.

An avatar demonstrate is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2027 — but do not count on it to glance anything like “ABBA Voyage,” Sundin instructed the AP. And fans can assume it to kick off in North America.

Sundin claims the intention of the obtain is to expose Kiss to new generations — which he thinks sets Pophouse aside from other acquisitions of audio catalogs.

“The record companies, the a few large types that are remaining, they are doing a great position, but they have so a lot of catalogs and they cannot concentration on every thing,” he claims. “We work collectively with Common (Audio Group) and Kiss, even even though we will have the artists legal rights, and we’re executing it in conjunction with Kiss. But yes, we purchased all legal rights, and that’s not some thing I’ve observed that obvious ahead of.”

“I never like the term acquisition,” Gene Simmons tells the AP in excess of Zoom, assuring the band would in no way offer their catalog to a corporation they did not appreciate.

“Collaboration is just what it’s about. It would be remiss in our inferred fiduciary obligation — see what I just did there? — to the detail that we designed to abandon it,” he continued. “People could misunderstand and consider, ‘OK, now Pophouse is executing that things and we’re just in Beverly Hills twiddling our thumbs.’ No, which is not true. We’re in the trenches with them. We communicate all the time. We share strategies. It’s a collaboration. Paul (Stanley) and I particularly, with the band, we’ll keep fully commited to this. It is our toddler.”

And inside that: no a lot more dwell touring, for authentic. “We’re not going to tour yet again as Kiss, period of time,” he claims. “We’re not heading to go place the makeup on and go out there.”

Kiss are Pophouse’s 2nd expenditure outside of Sweden: In February, Cyndi Lauper entered a partnership with the firm which such as the sale of the the vast majority share of her tunes and a new immersive effectiveness challenge she’s calling an “immersive theater piece” that transports audiences to the New York she grew up in.

The intention is to create new ways to bring Lauper’s tunes to enthusiasts and more youthful audiences by way of new performances and stay encounters.

“Most satisfies, when you tell them an idea, their eyes glaze about, they just want your finest hits,” Lauper advised the AP at the Pophouse headquarters in Stockholm in February. “But these guys are a multimedia firm, they’re not on the lookout to just acquire my catalog, they want to make something new.”