ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus’ Pophouse buys up most of the rights to Avicii’s catalog

Producer and DJ Tim Bergling, better known as Avicii, died in 2018, and the majority of his catalog and publishing rights have just been sold off to Pophouse Entertainment—a licensing company co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. That comes from Billboard, which says that Pophouse is actually planning to do stuff with Avicii’s music rather than sit on it and let it make money for them.

Pophouse’s CEO is a guy named Per Sundin, who actually signed Avicii to his label when he was running Universal Music Sweden, so the company seems invested in doing right by him and his catalog. They’ve already put together the Avicii Experience, an “interactive museum” in Stockholm, and it sounds like they’re planning more big showcases like that. Whatever they do, though, Avicii’s parents are going to be keeping an eye on it, with Pophouse taking control of 75% of the DJ’s work and his parents retaining the other 25% so they can make sure that the company takes “a dignified tone in activities related to Tim’s music, his legacy, and connection with his ever-growing fanbase.”

Earlier this year, Pophouse also bought the rights to the music of Swedish House Mafia, and it also runs the ABBA Museum and had a hand in the wacky stuff ABBA has been up to (like the hologram show in London featuring digitally de-aged versions of the members of ABBA). Beyond that, and apparently in line with everything else it’s been doing, Pophouse reportedly intends to start investing in “music assets” that aren’t related to ABBA or Swedish electronic music acts, and it will “monetize them in ways that other rightsholders don’t think to do.” (Based on the “dignified tone” comment, we’re going to assume a touring Avicii hologram is out of the question.)