Sia Sells 50% of Music Rights to Pophouse in Reported $180M Deal

Pophouse Entertainment has acquired a 50% stake in the publishing and master music rights of Australian singer-songwriter Sia in a deal reported at $180 million. The investment joins one of modern pop’s most recognizable bodies of work with a Sweden-based entertainment and music investment company co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus.

The agreement covers two distinct but closely connected areas of music rights: publishing and masters. Publishing concerns the underlying song—the composition and lyrics—while master rights generally concern a particular recorded performance of that song. A stake in both gives an investor a meaningful role in the commercial life of a catalog, from recordings people stream to songs that are reused in new settings.

Pophouse said the partnership is intended to support Sia’s future creative ventures as well as steward her existing work. That language matters. The company is not solely positioning the catalog as a passive portfolio of songs; its existing holdings and investments point toward an approach that can connect music ownership with audience-facing projects and long-term cultural presentation.

What is included in the Sia rights transaction?

The central reported fact is straightforward: Pophouse has purchased half of Sia’s publishing and master music rights. It is not described as a complete sale of her catalog, so Sia retains a 50% interest in the rights covered by the arrangement.

That distinction is important when interpreting a large catalog number. A “catalog sale” can refer to very different transactions: an artist may transfer all rights, sell a share, sell only the songwriting side, or retain rights while partnering on specific commercial uses. Here, the disclosed structure is a 50% stake spanning both publishing and masters.

Sia’s work includes major recordings such as Chandelier, Unstoppable, Elastic Heart and Cheap Thrills. Her songwriting reaches beyond her own recordings as well, including Rihanna’s Diamonds and Beyoncé’s Pretty Hurts. That combination is a key part of the catalog’s significance: it encompasses an artist identity built around Sia’s voice and performances, alongside songs whose reach extends through other prominent artists.

The reported $180 million value comes with a legal and personal-financial wrinkle connected to Sia’s divorce from Dan Bernad. A reported breakdown based on legal documents says $165 million is allocated to songs Sia wrote before the marriage, with Bernad waiving claims to those works in exchange for a $1 million payment. The remaining $15 million, tied to songs written during the marriage, is reportedly being held in escrow while the parties reach an agreement.

Escrow is a holding arrangement in which money is set aside until stated conditions are met. In this case, it means that portion is not described as immediately distributable while the relevant terms remain unresolved. The arrangement should not be read as changing the reported headline value; rather, it describes how the proceeds are being handled during the divorce process.

A catalog built through recordings and songwriting

Sia first gained broad international attention after her 2004 song Breathe appeared in the final episode of Six Feet Under. In the years since, she has received nine Grammy nominations and released or contributed to songs that have become fixtures of contemporary pop.

Her catalog also includes Thunderclouds, the 2018 single released with Diplo and Labrinth under the LSD name. Across these projects, Sia’s career has moved between solo material, collaborative recordings and songwriting for others. For a rights partner, that range creates several forms of continued relevance: listeners may find the songs through Sia’s own catalog, through another performer’s hit, or through a new project connected to a familiar composition.

Sia described the partnership as a chance for the songs to continue reaching people in new ways. Her emphasis was on care for the music as well as the possibility of future ideas. Pophouse CEO Jessica Koravos similarly framed the deal around preserving and expanding Sia’s influence while supplying strategic and creative support for her ambitions.

Those statements do not announce a specific new production, release or experience. They do establish the intended direction of the relationship: Pophouse will be expected to work alongside Sia on activity beyond merely administering a library of recordings and compositions.

Why Pophouse is a notable partner

Pophouse’s other catalog holdings include Iron Maiden, Tina Turner, Kiss, Cyndi Lauper, Avicii and Swedish House Mafia. Its investments also extend to projects including the Avicii Experience, ABBA the Museum, Mamma Mia! the Party and ABBA Voyage.

That portfolio offers useful context for the Sia deal. Pophouse’s stated business is not limited to buying rights and collecting revenue generated by past recordings. Its investments indicate an interest in experiences and projects that give music a place in physical destinations, live entertainment and broader cultural formats. It would be premature to infer that any particular type of project is planned for Sia, but the company’s history helps explain why a 50% partner might be valuable beyond capital alone.

For readers following the commercial side of entertainment, the deal is also another example of intellectual property being treated as an active, adaptable asset. A beloved song can have value as a recording, as a composition performed by others, and as a foundation for a larger entertainment proposition. The practical work of serving those possibilities includes careful rights management, maintaining the music’s identity and choosing opportunities that make sense for the artist.

That wider ecosystem is increasingly relevant across media businesses. Recent moves around partner marketing and distribution show how companies are looking for clearer pathways between creative properties and audiences; the evolving emphasis on partner marketing and distribution is one adjacent example. Sia and Pophouse have not detailed a marketing plan, but a catalog partnership of this size naturally puts long-term audience development at the center of its rationale.

The fund behind the purchase

Pophouse is making the investment through Pophouse Fund I, its debut fund. The fund closed in March 2025 at its €1 billion hard cap. The company also secured more than €200 million through dedicated co-investment vehicles, bringing the total fundraising figure above €1.2 billion.

A hard cap is the maximum amount a fund intends to accept from investors. Reaching it indicates that Fund I met the limit established for its fundraising round. Dedicated co-investment vehicles, meanwhile, are additional structures that enable investment alongside the primary fund in particular opportunities. Together, those figures explain the financial platform Pophouse has assembled for high-profile music-rights partnerships and related entertainment projects.

The Sia deal is therefore significant in two ways. For Sia, it creates a half-ownership partnership around songs and recordings that have defined a substantial part of her career. For Pophouse, it adds a songwriter and performer whose work has operated at both pop scale and cross-artist scale, while aligning with the company’s ambition to develop enduring music properties.

What comes next has not been specified, and the appropriate near-term expectation is simply a partnership built around rights stewardship and future creative development. The confirmed transaction is the 50% acquisition; the form any later ventures take remains to be seen.