Round Hill Music Royalty Fund (LSE:RHM) Limited has acquired a significant majority of the rights to the music of Seattle-based grunge band Alice in Chains.
The acquisition comprises a significant majority of the publishing, masters and neighbouring rights in the catalogue comprising 94 compositions and 159 recordings.
Revenue from the catalogue is attributable to a diverse group of sources. Round Hill said 53% of the catalogue's income is earned from master tapes/digital files; 38% of the income is from publishing sources including the writer's share of performance income and 9% is from neighbouring rights income. In terms of geographical exposure, 75% of the revenue is from the US, while the remaining balance is from other countries.
The heyday of Alice in Chains was in the early nineties, where tracks from albums such as Facelift and Dirt were featured heavily on music-focused cable TV channel MTV as grunge music became the dominant musical genre in the rock world.
The band has released eight albums, the most recent of which – Rainier Fog – was issued in 2018.
“We are delighted to add a premier, iconic rock catalogue of exceptional quality to the company's portfolio. Alice In Chains represents an extremely compelling addition to the company's existing holdings and increases our stature in a genre in which we are building an established reputation for sourcing extremely prominent acquisitions of enduring importance for the benefit of our shareholders,” said Trevor Bowen the chair of Round Hill Music Royalty Fund (LSE:RHM).
Josh Gruss, the chair and chief executive officer of Round Hill, said seeing the band perform at the Lollapalooza festival “changed my life and now it’s happening again”.
“As one of the greatest bands of their generation they helped trailblaze a global musical movement and their songwriting, recording and performances have remained consistently exceptional ever since,” Gruss gushed.