\n\tSwedish Entertainment Company Pophouse Entertainment said on Tuesday (July 14) it acquired 50% of British heavy metal icons Iron Maiden<\/a>\u2018s band members\u2019 stake in the publishing and master music rights, and name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights.<\/p>\n \n\tFormed 1975 by founder and bassist Steve Harris in London, Iron Maiden remains one of the most enduring and influential bands in music history with 100 million records sold, 17 studio albums and major honors including Grammy, Brit and Ivor Novello awards. Terms of the deal, which Pophouse says was structured and developed over the last year with the band\u2019s co-manager Andy Taylor<\/strong>, were not disclosed. BMG, which has worked with Iron Maiden\u00a0in the United States since\u00a0the acquisition of Sanctuary Records in 2013, retains its ownership stake in the band\u2019s catalog.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n\t\u201cWe are 50-50 partners with the band, and the plan is that we\u2019re going to work together turbo charging Maiden\u2019s plans for the future,\u201d Jessica Koravos<\/strong>, CEO of Pophouse, which owns music rights of\u00a0KISS<\/a>,\u00a0Cyndi Lauper<\/a> and Tina Turner<\/a>, tells Billboard.<\/em> \u201cWith Pophouse, we\u2019re always thinking around the visual identity and \u2026 there\u2019s lots of world building that\u2019s possible both in [Maiden\u2019s] artwork, but also in the storytelling within the songs. The heavy metal genre, especially with the addition of Eddie, lends itself to a treatment potentially in the world of horror.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEstablished by\u00a0ABBA member\u00a0Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Conni Jonsson<\/strong>, founder of global private equity behemoth EQT AB, Pophouse is best known for its affiliation with ABBA Voyage,\u00a0<\/em>the London show where avatars of the ABBA members in their prime perform the band\u2019s greatest hits. Koravos said Pophouse is collaborating with Iron Maiden on a film of its Run For Your Lives World Tour and other plans around interactive fan experiences and a digital universe centered around Eddie, Maiden\u2019s longtime ghoulish mascot and a central part of the band\u2019s imagery. The acquisition includes a stake in the rights relating to Eddie, alongside trademarks, personas and other associated IP covered by the NIL rights.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI am very excited about our relationship with Pophouse and the ability we now have to pursue, facilitate, and finance our many plans and dreams quicker than we ever hoped,\u201d Iron Maiden\u2019s manager, Rod Smallwood<\/strong>, said in a statement. \u201cThe interest in the band has never been bigger and [with] this strategic partnership \u2026 the fans can be assured there is a great deal more to come for Maiden, and Eddie will rule, OK!!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA mainstay heavy metal act for more than 50 years, Maiden has had four albums reach the top 10 of the Billboard<\/em> 200 chart: Senjutsu<\/em>, which in 2021 became Maiden\u2019s highest-charting album<\/a> debuting at No. 3, The Book of Souls<\/em> in 2015, The Final Frontier<\/em> in 2010, and A Matter of Life And Death<\/em> in 2006. Maiden\u2019s 1986 album Somewhere In Time<\/em> notched the No. 11 spot on the Billboard 200<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n\tFrom Madonna to the Rolling Stones, the catalogs of legacy acts typically generate less revenue from streaming and more from physical sales, airplay spins, concerts, merchandise sales and licensing their music for other media, like concert films, video games and comic books, all of which Maiden has done. It\u2019s latest film, the documentary\u00a0Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition<\/em><\/a>, came out earlier this year alongside news that the group will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to Luminate, the Iron Maiden catalog averaged about 191,000 album equivalent units over the past four years in the United States, of which album sales totaled about 136,000 units while streaming averaged almost 172 million on-demand streams annually. However, outside the U.S. where Iron Maiden has a large and growing audience, the group averaged 1.055 billion on-demand streams annually.<\/p>\n \n\tThe band\u2019s live presence is legendary, and Koravos says they have no intention of cribbing the band\u2019s ability to tour. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOne of the attractions of this catalog is the incredible fandom that surrounds them, and they\u2019ve done the most incredible job over the years of giving those fans amazing shows every single time,\u201d said Koravos, whose husband, Stuart Galbraith<\/strong>, CEO of KMJ Entertainment Group, was the promoter of Maiden\u2019s recent Eddfest shows in Knebworth, United Kingdom.\u00a0\u201cI have a deep understanding of the Maiden fan, and I think the band would say they\u2019ve brought us on board to turbo charge them, [not] to help them hang up their boots.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIron Maiden has played more than 2,500 shows in 64 countries worldwide, according to Pophouse, touring the world in a personalized Boeing 747 piloted by frontman Bruce Dickinson. (Dickinson is a licensed commercial airline pilot who used to fly with the British charter line Astraeus and once flew a group of Royal Air Force pilots home from Afghanistan in a flight chartered by the British Ministry of Defence.)<\/p>\n \n\tTouring that much is lucrative. For the 745 shows for which industry sources reported figures to Billboard Boxscore charts, the band has sold 10.5 million tickets and grossed $681.1 million since 1984. Those numbers are incomplete, as boxscore data is subject to data submitted by official industry sources, and it does not include merchandise sales.<\/p>\n \n\tThe group draws massive audiences in Latin America, particularly in Brazil where Maiden played their first Rock in Rio festival in 1985. In late November, 2024, Maiden sold 119,000 tickets to their double-header at Santiago, Chile\u2019s Estadio Nacional, making that stop the group\u2019s best-selling concert stop, according to Billboard Boxscore.<\/p>\n \n\tThe group also draws large crowds across Europe, particularly in their hometown of London where they played their highest-grossing show on June 28, 2025, at London Stadium grossed $8.9 million from 75,000 tickets. That show, part of the group\u2019s 50th-anniversary Run For Your Lives World Tour,<\/a> helped make Iron Maiden the 14th highest-grossing touring act in 2025, with 59 shows and more than 1.5 million tickets sold grossing nearly $151 million, according to Boxscore.<\/p>\n \n\tCatalog investors consider acts that are currently touring more appealing than artists who aren\u2019t because those live shows activate the band\u2019s fanbase, with ticket and merch sales providing current data to measure consumer demand and drive new fans to stream their music.<\/p>\n\n
\n
![\"Market](\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/issue-03-market-opener-cr-glenn-harvey_billboard-1800.jpg?w=237&h=147&crop=1\")
<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"Billboard](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2HpFicp.png\")