Rod Stewart Sells His Music Catalog For $100m

Rod Stewart has recently finalized a deal with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, selling the rights to his song catalog for nearly $100 million.

Expressing his confidence in the agreement, Stewart stated to The Wall Street Journal:

“Irving and I share a deep respect for each other. I trust that my life’s work is in good hands with him.”

This move aligns Stewart with other notable artists who have entrusted their catalogs to Azoff’s company, including the Beach Boys, Cher, David Crosby, Linda Ronstadt, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills. Reportedly, Iconic Artists Group has amassed over $1 billion for future investments in music catalogs.

Interestingly, this decision follows Stewart’s rejection of a previous offer from Hipgnosis Songs less than a year ago. Regarding that offer, Stewart remarked:

“This catalog represents my life’s work. After careful consideration, it became clear that Hipgnosis Songs was not the right fit to manage my catalog, career, or legacy.”

New Music Anticipated from Rod Stewart

Fans can anticipate fresh music from Rod Stewart, with his 32nd album, Swing Fever, set to release on February 23. This album, a collaboration with Jools Holland, features primarily live studio recordings of 13 classic big band tracks.

In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, Stewart described the recording process:

“Jools would rehearse with the band for a day with songs and then the next day I’d show up and everything was live and in three hours we’d have three takes, solos were live, everything was live apart from my vocals, there’s not many records that are made like that nowadays.”