Kiss sells catalog, brand name and IP
LONDON
Hard rock quartet Kiss have sold their catalog, brand name and IP to Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment Group in a deal estimated to be over $300 million, it was announced yesterday.
This isn't the first time Kiss has partnered with Pophouse, which was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. When the band's current lineup — founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as well as guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — took the stage at the final night of their farewell tour in December at New York City's famed Madison Square Garden, they ended by revealing digitized avatars of themselves.
The ways in which Kiss' avatars will be utilized has yet to be announced, but Pophouse CEO Per Sundin says fans can expect a biopic, a documentary and a Kiss experience on the horizon.
An avatar show is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2027 — but don't expect it to look anything like “ABBA Voyage," Sundin told the AP. And fans can expect it to kick off in North America.
Sundin says the goal of the purchase is to expose Kiss to new generations — which he believes sets Pophouse apart from other acquisitions of music catalogs.
“I don't like the word acquisition,” Gene Simmons told the AP, assuring the band would never sell their catalog to a company they didn't appreciate.
“Collaboration is exactly what it’s about. It would be remiss in our inferred fiduciary duty — see what I just did there? — to the thing that we created to abandon it," he continued. “People might misunderstand and think, ‘OK, now Pophouse is doing that stuff and we’re just in Beverly Hills twiddling our thumbs.’ No, that’s not true. We’re in the trenches with them. We talk all the time. We share ideas. It’s a collaboration. Paul [Stanley] and I especially, with the band, we’ll stay committed to this. It’s our baby."
And within that: No more live touring, for real. “We’re not going to tour again as Kiss, period,” he says. “We’re not going to go put the makeup on and go out there.”
