It seems you couldn’t go anywhere in the late ‘90s without walking face-first into an Offspring song, be it Smash hit “Come Out and Play” or Ixnay on the Hombre’s “Gone Away”. The pop-punk band’s impressive numbers to date back that up, with nearly 17 million units sold in the U.S. alone. Now, the So Cal rockers stand to get a whole lot richer. As Billboard reports, Round Hill Music has acquired The Offspring’s catalog of recorded masters for an estimated $35 million.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Billboard claims that the New York-based record label now owns the rights to the band’s Columbia Records master recording catalog, which includes six studio albums and one greatest hits album. The band’s best-selling record, 1994’s Smash, remains owned by Epitaph Records, but Round Hill Music has reportedly acquired publishing rights to the songs on Smash and the band’s earlier Epitaph albums.
The acquisition will qualify as Round Hill’s biggest to date, though a similar deal for the song catalog of Big Loud Shirt Industries might also reach the $35 million mark. Explaining the rationale behind the massive purchase, Round Hill chairman and CEO Josh Gruss said, “We have some masters like the Bush catalog and records from developing artists like London Souls and Nigel Hall, but we wanted more exposure and you won’t get a more high-quality catalog than The Offspring.” He also noted that his label didn’t have any American punk rock in their publishing portfolio and this this move “helps broaden the genre representation.”
The Offspring’s catalog allegedly produced $3.1 million in net publisher or net label revenue, and the prospect of building on that profit also undoubtedly factored into the purchase. According to Gruss, Round Hill is focused on buying these assets before the growing popularity of music streaming increases their price.
Given the insane sticker price, it’s no surprise that the band seems pleased with the outcome of the sale. “We felt that having the right caretaker for our catalogue, both the masters and the publishing, is incredibly important to the future of our career,” Offspring’s spiky-haired vocalist and guitarist Dexter Holland said in a statement. “Round Hill understands that we are continuing to perform and record and that the visibility of our past is critical to our future.”
Whatever that future entails, Holland and Co. have set themselves up with a nice little nest egg. Punk may not be dead, but it has one hell of a retirement plan.
Below, revisit our interview with The Offspring which took place during Riot Fest 2014.
