When RBD performed their last concert on Dec. 22, 2008 in Madrid, the world said goodbye to a Mexican band that became an unstoppable force, thanks to their hit telenovela Rebelde and a series of coming-of-age pop anthems featuring members Anahí, Alfonso Herrera, Dulce María, Christian Chavez, Maite Perroni and Christopher von Uckermann.
The group’s music has been hard to find as well, given its absence on streaming services. You could consider yourself lucky if you had a physical copy of one of their chart-topping albums or had attended one of their sold-out concerts around the world.
But 12 years later, RBD’s catalog is set to be made available across all digital streaming platforms as of midnight Sept. 4.
Why the catalog wasn’t available before is a complex story and involves a lot of entities, says Guillermo Rosas CEO of T6H Entertainment (who manages Anahí, Chavez and von Uckermann), but it’s important to remember that the name Rebelde was exclusively licensed to Cris Morena, creator of Argentina’s Rebelde Way and Dori Media Group based in Israel.
“Morena and Dori Music Group then created an association with Televisa to co-create the Mexican version of Rebelde (2004-2006), which is where the band, RBD, stems from. When the telenovela ended and the band separated, the license for the name was never renewed again,” explains Rosas, who created a partnership with Televisa as the band’s promoter.
In total, RBD grossed $72.5 million and sold over 1.5 million tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. On the Billboard charts, RBD had a total of seven entries on the Billboard 200 chart including Rebelde, Celestial and Nuestro Amor, and eight entries on Top Latin Albums with six hitting the top 10. Over on Hot Latin Songs, the band had 10 total entries and out of those, five hit top 10.
All their music was recorded under EMI Music, which was bought by Universal Music Group in 2012. Following the purchase, Universal now owned the rights of the music but still didn’t have permission to use the name because the license was never renewed.
“People would illegally upload the music all the time and well that affected everyone. No one was monetizing those streams but the fans were also getting a bad experience. The song would be up there one day, and taken down the next,” says Rosas.
“Getting the license renewed and now releasing the catalogue on streaming platforms has been a team effort,” he adds . “And for the last two years, we’ve been really persistent. But the fans are really the heroes here, they kept nudging us to do our job and well, we did.”
All of RBD’s studio albums will be available for streaming.
“The six band members have an independent career and have chosen different paths but if there’s something they all have in common is the love they have for their fans,” says Rosas. “They’re excited people will finally be able to listen to their music.”
A teaser posted by Spotify Mexico on Aug. 20, was retweeted by more than 15,000 people with zealous fans drawing up conclusions about the cryptic message. Is it new music? Tour?
“For me personally, [the catalogue release] means that I’m moving the energy of millions of people so that something bigger than releasing the catalogue can happen,” says Rosas. “This will move a lot of people and that energy is so powerful. Who knows what or if anything else can happen but we’re taking it one step at a time.”
