Sia has sold a 50 percent stake in her music catalog for a whopping $180 million, Rolling Stone has confirmed. News of the sale was first reported by TMZ. The star closed the deal with Pophouse, the Swedish music catalog investment firm co-founded by Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, and will be collaborating with the firm to launch an immersive digital avatar production based around her music. An official announcement is expected imminently.
The singer-songwriter’s plans to crossover into the digital realm will include a show incorporating her songs as an artist and as a writer, according to a source familiar with the deal, and utilize her vocals on global hits like Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” which has reached more than 2 billion Spotify streams. The show’s debut is at least a couple years out, adds the source, and may tour to select cities, though it’s still in the early stages of planning.
Pophouse’s stake in Sia’s catalog is limited to publishing and master recording rights, and does not include name and likeness. An insider estimates Sia’s songs bring in $18 million annually in writing and performance royalties. In delivering all of her top hits using her vocals and new versions of her songs, it’s poised to be a highly lucrative move for both Pophouse and Sia, who boasts some of the most impressive streaming numbers in the music industry.
Many of Sia’s songs have hit more than a billion streams on Spotify including her collaboration “Titanium” with DJ David Guetta that sits at 2.4 billion streams. “Unstoppable,” “Chandelier,” “Dusk Till Dawn” with singer Zayn, and “Cheap Thrills” have all surpassed 2 billion, while the “Cheap Thrills” version with Sean Paul, Flo Rida-collab “Wild Ones,” “Elastic Heart,” and “Snowman” have more than 1 billion streams.
Pophouse developed the Abba Voyage show, a popular virtual residency that uses “ABBAtars” of the Swedish hitmakers (as they appeared in 1979) performing in a custom-built arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
