Kiss sells song catalog for more than $300M to company co-founded by ABBA member

nypost.com:

final night of their farewell tour in December at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden, they ended by revealing digitized avatars of themselves.The cutting-edge technology was created by George Lucas’ special-effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, in partnership with Pophouse.

The two companies recently teamed up for the “ABBA Voyage” show in London, in which fans could attend a full concert by the Swedish band in their heyday, as performed by their own digital avatars.The ways in which Kiss’ avatars will be utilized has yet to be announced, but Pophouse CEO Per Sundin says fans can expect a biopic, a documentary and a Kiss experience on the horizon.An avatar show is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2027 — but don’t expect it to look anything like “ABBA Voyage,” Sundin told the AP.

And fans can expect it to kick off in North America.Sundin says the goal of the purchase is to expose Kiss to new generations — which he believes sets Pophouse apart from other acquisitions of music catalogs.“The record companies, the three big ones that are left, they’re doing a fantastic job, but they have so many catalogs and they can’t focus on everything,” he says. “We work together with Universal (Music Group) and Kiss, even though we will own the artists rights, and we’re doing it in conjunction with Kiss.

But yes, we bought all rights, and that’s not something I’ve seen that clear before.”“I don’t like the word acquisition,” Gene Simmons tells the AP over Zoom, assuring the band would never sell their catalog to a company they didn’t appreciate.“Collaboration is exactly what it’s about.