HarbourView Acquires Stake in Kelly Clarkson Catalog: ‘My Music Is Such a Huge Part of My Journey’

HarbourView Equity Partners, the Newark, NJ-based music and media investment company that owns rights to the catalogs of Fleetwood Mac, Nelly and Kane Brown, said on Thursday it acquired a stake in the catalog of powerhouse singer and original American Idol queen Kelly Clarkson.

The acquisition includes partial rights to some of Clarkson’s most recognizable hits: “Since U Been Gone,” which spent its first seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard‘s Pop Songs chart; “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” which remains the best-selling single by any American Idol contestant; and three other releases that charted in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 “Because of You,” “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” and “Underneath the Tree,” which peaked on the chart this holiday season. In total, the Texas native had 12 singles hit the top 10.

Details including financial terms the types of rights were not disclosed.

A three-time Grammy Award-winner, including two for her sophomore album, 2004’s Breakaway, Clarkson’s career has gone full circle, with her returning to television with her The Kelly Clarkson Show recently getting renewed for its seventh season. Her success across multiple music and entertainment platforms — Clarkson is currently doing a residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas — compliments HarbourView’s multi-platform investment strategy, founder Sherrese Clarke tells Billboard.

“Kelly she is a multi-hyphenate already,” Clarke says. “She came to be from television. She knows and understands television as a medium and is such a talented vocalist. She like us is more than one thing. It’s important to us to collaborate with people who are thoughtful about how to navigate multiple mediums.”

In a statement, Clarkson said, “My music is such a huge part of my journey – not just professionally, but personally. Knowing these songs will continue to be heard and discovered by new generations means everything to me. I’m grateful to HarbourView for valuing and supporting this catalog.”

Last month, HarbourView announced it raised $500 million through the sale of a private asset-backed securitization (ABS) to insurance vehicles managed by global investment firm KKR. It was the second half-a-billion-dollar securitization the comapny has issued in two years, having completed the other in March 2024.

Since Clarke founded HarbourView in 2021, the firm has acquired more than 70 music catalogs and accumulated approximately $2.67 billion in regulatory assets under management. Their portfolio includes stakes in songs by artists like Wiz Khalifa and Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, as well as stakes in the production companies MACRO and Mucho Mas Media.

Through its entertainment-focused arm, Harbourview is financing a slate of hip-hop biopics — including one about Queen Latifah — for Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios, Flavor Unit and Jesse Collins Entertainment. The company also recently announce a strategic partnership with Issa Rae’s ColorCreative and it led an $85-million investment round into the children’s content company Animaj, powered by proprietary, creator safe, GenAI, reflecting its broader vision for media innovation.

Clarke acknowledges the marketplace for content remains challenged by the industry’s shift to streaming economics, but says HarbourView’s investment strategies rely on vigorously vetted data.

“The media landscape is undergoing a massive shift,” Clarke tells Billboard. “But we also still know that we all are consuming a lot of content all the time. Whether that’s Fleetwood Mac, Kelly Clarkson, Issa Rae, we believe the audience is on the other side. We follow that because we see the data.”