Hipgnosis Song Management has acquired 80% of Kenny Chesney’s recorded music royalties, the company announced, covering his discography from his 1994 debut “In My Wildest Dreams”through 2017’s“LiveinNo Shoes Nation.”The catalog includes 22 albums, 15 of which are certified platinum. The deal is the first acquisition made by Hipgnosis Song Management since its recently announced partnership with Blackstone to acquire music rights and manage catalogs.
Terms of the deal were not announced.
Chesney is one of the top-selling country performers — and one of the top-grossing live artists — of the past 25 years, with more than 30 million albums sold worldwide. Songs included in the deal are such country chart-toppers as “The Good Stuff,” “There Goes My Life,” “How Forever Feels,” “When
The Sun Goes Down,” “Never Wanted Nothing More” and “Summertime.” He has won Entertainer of the Year from the Academy of Country Music four times each from the Country Music Association, and has been nominated for six Grammys.
Chesney was represented in the deal by his longtime manager ClintHighamat MorrisHighamManagement and lawyer Jess Rosen at Greenberg Traurig.
Hipgnosis founder-CEO MerckMercuriadis said: “Kenny Chesney is one of the truly great American artists. He has been bringing joy to music fans all over the world for almost 30 years. His incredible success of morethan 30 million records sold including nine No. 1 albums on the all-genreBillboard200 chart and 17 No. 1 albums onBillboard’sCountry chart tells you everything you need to know. Add in his unparalleled success as a touring artist and the juggernaut that is No Shoes Radio, and you realize Kenny is genuinely a phenomenon. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to welcome Kenny and Clint to theHipgnosisSongs family and we are delighted to launch our new Blackstone backed fund with this landmark acquisition.”
Chesneysaid: “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. How these songs live going forward is critical, and I believe Merck has the best interests of not just the recordings but the people who love them as his driving interest. For the people who love these songs and albums, this is a scenario that allows the music to grow and reflect who those of us living inside these songs truly are.”
Highamadded, “Kenny has put his life into amassing the collected body of work contained here, and it’s something we have all taken very seriously throughout his unprecedented career. There is no deal that is more important than protecting the legacy of these songs.”
