The Bertelsmann music division BMG and the holding company KKR take over a package of rights from the American rock band ZZ Top.

The deal includes the music group's author catalog, i.e. the rights to texts and compositions as well as the income from the exploitation of the recordings and license income from the performance, both parties said on Wednesday.

The deal covers the "entire musical interests" of the band.

Benjamin Fischer

Editor in business.

  • Follow I follow

ZZ Top have sold more than 50 million albums since 1971, according to the announcement.

Further details - such as a purchase price - were not given.

According to industry media, this was around $ 50 million.

It is the first deal made public in the alliance between BMG and KKR that was concluded in March for the joint acquisition of music rights.

Both parties know each other well.

From 2009 to 2013 KKR held 51 percent of the recently newly founded BMG and was significantly involved in catalog purchases to build it up.

As part of the new alliance, however, no shares were sold and no joint venture was founded.

BMG and KKR also buy alone

For some time now, sales of high-profile musicians have been increasing, and buyers expect stable income from their works in the long term. In addition to KKR, other financial investors such as Blackstone and Apollo Global Management are active in the field. There are also other buyers such as the Hipgnosis fund, Primary Wave publisher and, of course, the giants of the music industry, Universal, Sony and Warner Music. Sony took over the rights to Bruce Springsteen's recordings, texts and compositions last week. The deal is considered to be the largest sale by a single artist to date and is said to have a volume of around $ 500 million.

KKR and BMG also recently made acquisitions.

However, they took place separately from one another.

In October, the holding company took over a catalog with around 62,000 rights to songs by various artists for around $ 1.1 billion.

BMG, the fourth largest music company in the world, in turn acquired the rights to the recordings of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe after they had previously bought a rights package from Tina Turner.