Alice In Chains’ Music Rights Acquired by Primary Wave and Round Hill

The catalog includes such hits as “Man in the Box,” “Rooster” and “Would.” In the U.S. alone, the band’s activities generated more than 18 million album consumption units, including 12 million CD sales.

“Primary Wave is pleased to partner with the estates of Layne Staley and Mike Starr to honor their musical legacies as part of the classic era lineup of Alice In Chains, who created the amazing songs and records that comprise the albums Dirt and Facelift, and the acoustic EPs, Jar of Flies and Sap,” said Primary Wave’s David Weitzman in a statement. “These projects represent the greatest works from one of the best artists of the iconic ’90’s Seattle based grunge era.”

Lead singer Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002, while bassist Starr died of an overdose in 2011.

Meanwhile, in addition buying to the master recording royalties and the publishing catalog, Round Hill Music acquired the neighboring rights of guitarist Cantrell, drummer Kinney, bassist Inez, who replaced Starr, and singer DuVall, who replaced Staley.

“Over more than three decades Alice In Chains has cemented its place in the annals of rock history,” Round Hill chairman and CEO Josh Gruss said in a statement.  “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.  Seeing them perform at Lollapalooza in 1993 changed my life and now it’s happening again.  I couldn’t be more excited.” 

Round Hill reported that its share of the band’s publishing and master recording royalties is comprised of 53% from the master recordings, 38% from publishing sources and 9% from neighboring rights income. In breaking out the revenue another way, it said that 75% of the revenue is generated in the U.S. with the rest of the globe contributing the remaining 25%.

We are delighted to add a premier, iconic rock catalog of exceptional quality to the company’s portfolio,” Round Hill Music Royalty Fund chair Trevor Bowen said in a statement. “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.”

Alice in Chains were leaders in the grunge sound that emerged out of Seattle in the early ‘90s. After their 1990 debut, Facelift, peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard 200, the group had a run of six Top 10 albums, including 1994 EP Jar of Flies and the group’s 1995’s self-titled set, both of which reached No. 1. The group has charted 30 songs on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.

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