Peter Green performing live in 1970. Photo credit: Nick Contador
Primary Wave has signed a music rights deal with the Peter Green estate, taking interest in the publishing catalog of Fleetwood Mac Founder and “Certain Recordings”.
New York-based Primary Wave revealed this latest music IP acquisition today. On the composition side, the buyer, by its own description, secured “the assets comprised of Green’s Rattlesnake music publishing catalog and its interest in all compositions written by him.”
Also included are the aforementioned “certain recordings”—but Primary Wave opted against diving into details. Just in passing, though, Green performed on John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers’ A Hard Way and wrote two of the tracks on the 1967 album.
With Fleetwood Mac, Green wrote and recorded a 1968 debut effort, a follow-up the same year, and 1969’s So Play – picking up sole songwriting credits on “Albatross” and “Black Magic Woman” in the process.
And after leaving Fleetwood Mac, Green contributed to several of the group’s tracks, recorded and wrote for the lone release Katmandu, and released several solo projects, as well as several Peter Green Splinter Group albums.
Returning to today’s deal, Primary Wave has not publicly disclosed the precise financials involved. However, acquisitions executive Robin Godfrey Cass praised Hall of Famer Green’s career accomplishments.
“When I look at the definition of a musical genius,” the highest primary wave indicated, “Peter Green ticks all the boxes. As a musician, songwriter, and founder of Fleetwood Mac, he is an icon. It’s been over 60 years since he began writing his body of legendary songs that are still used today.”
Taking a step back, Primary Wave’s green tie-in is the latest in a line of Fleetwood Mac catalog investments. While there are many moving parts here—including the following the group built during the 20th century, of course—each of these sales came after a viral 2020 trend brought “dreams” to more than a few Gen Z listeners.
This development fueled, among other things, significant streaming growth for Fleetwood Mac’s broader catalog, which boasts 44 million monthly Spotify listeners. Primary Wave and Stevie Nicks closed 2020 by announcing a $100 million IP pact.
Then, Mick Fleetwood wrapped up a catalog deal with BMG in early 2021, and around the same time, Hipgnosis invested in the work of Lindsey Buckingham. Later that year, Christine McVie finalized a separate deal with Hipgnosis; her estate subsequently signed off on a Harbourview transaction centered on recordings in 2023.
