Kenny Chesney Sells ‘Most of’ His Music Catalog

Kenny Chesney has sold 80 percent of his music catalog, including 22 albums—15 of which were certified platinum—to Hipgnosis Song Management. Specific terms of the deal were not revealed.

Under the deal, Hipgnosis has acquired most of Chesney’s recorded music, spanning a discography from his 1994 debut In My Wildest Dreams through his 2017 release Live in No Shoes Nation.

This marks the first acquisition by Hipgnosis Song Management, which recently partnered with Blackstone to acquire music rights and manage catalogs.

“Kenny has put his life into amassing the collected body of work contained here, and it’s something we have all taken very seriously throughout his unprecedented career,” said Chesney’s longtime manager Clint Higham in a statement. “There is no deal that is more important than protecting the legacy of these songs.”

For nearly 30 years, Chesney has been one of the top-selling country artists with more than 30 million albums sold worldwide, nine No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, and 34 No. 1 hits, including 20 multi-week chart-toppers like “The Good Stuff,” “When The Sun Goes Down,” “Never Wanted Nothing More,” “There Goes My Life,” “Summertime,” and “How Forever Feels.” 

Chesney has also earned six Grammy nominations and received the Entertainer of the Year Award eight times, four times from the Country Music Association and another four from the Academy of Country Music.

In 2018, Chesney ended his contract with Sony Music Nashville and signed to Warner Bros. Records Nashville before releasing two back-to-back No. 1 albums, his 18th release, Songs for the Saints, and the follow-up Here and Now in 2020.

“To know that this music has a home that views the work as a collective body, something that builds on itself and captures the heart of ‘No Shoes Nation,’ was important to me,” said Chesney in a statement. “How these songs live going forward is critical, and I believe Merck [Mercuriadis, founder of Hipgnosis Song Management] has the best interests of not just the recordings but the people who love them as his driving interest. For the people who love these songs and albums, this is a scenario that allows the music to grow and reflect who those of us living inside these songs truly are.”

Photos: Danny Clinch