R Kelly is having trouble finding a buyer for his catalog.
In jail since July 2019, Kelly hasn't been able to tour or release new music. His existing recordings still generate plenty of revenue that flows to former label RCA Records — about $1.7 million in the United States so far this year, Billboard estimates — but the resulting royalties don't go into Kelly's pockets. That's because the money has been claimed by both his former recording studio landlord and a woman who won a $4 million judgment against him for allegedly sexually abusing her when she was 16.
"It has been offered to me a number of times by his team, and of course, I've said no for the obvious reasons," says Merck Mercuriadis, Hipgnosis Songs Fund founder and CEO of The Family (Music) Ltd., adding that the last discussion took place about six months ago.
What could be for sale? Kelly's songs released before 2007 — including "Bump N' Grind," "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Ignition (Remix)" — appear to be covered under a publishing deal that Kelly signed with Zomba, which Universal Music Group acquired in 2006, along with the rest of BMG Music Publishing. Some of his post-2007 songs appear to be covered under a co-publishing deal with UMG, which would give him a bigger split of songs like "Number One" and "Good Sex." So Kelly could sell his 50% songwriter share from earlier compositions and both the writer's share and co-publishing rights to the later material.
It's hard to say what these songs are worth now, though. R&B song catalogs typically sell for a 12-times multiple of net publisher's share of gross profit, but such a successful sole writer could potentially get 20-times NPS, which Billboard estimates to be at least $1.05 million, and implies that Kelly's songs could have been worth up to $21 million.
