Kenny Chesney is parting ways with 80 percent of his recorded music royalties, across albums that span a period of over two decades.
Hipgnosis Song Management acquired the rights to the catalog, following a $1 billion partnership the company made with investment firm Blackstone last October, Billboard reports. The purpose of the partnership was to invest in music assets.
The portion of Kenny’s catalog in question comes from his Sony Music days, beginning with his 1994 debut album, In My Wildest Dreams, through his 2017 live project, Live in No Shoes Nation.
Not included are the albums Kenny’s put out since switching to Warner Music Nashville in 2018: His 2018 release, Songs for the Saints, and 2020’s Here and Now.
In a statement, Kenny shared his thoughts, saying “To know that this music has a home that views the work as a collective body, something that builds on itself and captures the heart of No Shoes Nation, was important to me.”
Catalog sales have been something of a theme for artists of all genres over the past couple years; Rolling Stone’s recent report of highest-paid musicians in 2021 includes several artists who made a chunk of their money through such sales.
Among them was Blake Shelton. Blake earned $50 million last year from a previously unreported catalog sale. He was the only country star to hit the Top 10 musicians in terms of earnings, raking in $83 million overall.
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