OAN’s Sophia Flores
1:35 PM – Friday, April 5, 2024
The rock band KISS has sold their music catalog, brand name and IP to a Swedish entertainment group in a deal estimated to be worth over $300 million. This mega deal will let the band “live on eternally.”
On Thursday, Pophouse Entertainment Group, which was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, announced that they have obtained the hard rock quartet’s songs and royalties.
This isn’t the first time that founders of the band, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, and its other members, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, have worked with the entertainment group.
During the band’s farewell tour at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in December, the two parties debuted their collaboration which showed band members as digital avatars. The avatars, which were financed by the entertainment group, were designed by George Lucas’s visual effects company.
CEO of Pophouse, Per Sundin, announced that similar to the hologram show “ABBA Voyage,” that it launch in London in 2022, the company has plans to have a digital KISS show. The first performance is scheduled for 2027. Front men Simmons and Stanley will work with the company to develop the show.
“Our partnership will fuse the rich history and iconic status of KISS with cutting-edge technology, allowing fans – now and in the future – to experience the band like never before,” Sundin said.
Additionally, the entertainment group has plans to create a KISS biopic and a documentary.
Sundin stated that the goal of purchasing KISS’s catalog is to expose the band to new generations.
“We want to keep to the legacy,” Sundin says. “We want to extend it and amplify it for new generations.”
The band, which has hits such as “Rock and Roll All Nite,” “I Was Made For Lovin’ You,” and “Beth,” was formed in 1973 by Simmons and Stanley. The band originally featured guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss.
However, they have since left the band and have been replaced.
By the mid-1970’s KISS became the self-proclaimed “hottest band in the world.” The influential rock band, well known for their members’ face paint and stage outfits, have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
“KISS has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and has throughout their 50-year career continued to push the boundaries in popular culture,” Sundin said. “The band’s enigmatic personas, unparalleled band attributes, and iconic imagery have made them a cultural force and a legendary act with multigenerational appeal.”
“We will safeguard and enrich this legacy through future global endeavors, by breathing new life into their characters and personas while also leveraging and elevating the visual world of KISS.”
KISS is Pophouse’s latest catalog to be acquired, as the entertainment group owns catalogs by the late Swedish DJ-artist Avicii, the electronic music group Swedish House Mafia and American singer Cyndi Lauper.
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