A new home for Robert Palmer’s songs and image

Primary Wave has struck a deal with Robert Palmer’s estate to bring his publishing, recordings and name, image and likeness into a single campaign, opening the way to synchronisation and screen projects; financial terms were not disclosed.

Primary Wave Music has entered a partnership with the estate of Robert Palmer covering the late singer’s publishing and recording catalogues and his name, image and likeness rights. The deal was announced on or around 23 September 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The arrangement takes in the songs that carried Palmer across a four-decade career, among them Addicted to Love, Simply Irresistible, Johnny & Mary and Some Like It Hot. Those titles sit inside a body of work that runs to fourteen studio albums and three live albums. Primary Wave will supply marketing and publishing infrastructure and pursue synchronisation opportunities and film and television projects built around the recordings and his image.

The estate said it was “very excited to partner with Primary Wave” in order to honour Palmer’s legacy and reach new audiences. Samantha Rhulen, senior vice-president at Primary Wave, described him as “a truly unique artist whose distinctive voice, songwriting, and style left an indelible mark”. The assets had been shopped earlier in 2026. No further detail on new releases or specific projects was given.

From Island beginnings to the 1980s peak

Robert Allen Palmer was an English singer and songwriter, known for a powerful, soulful voice, a sharp sense of dress and a restless ear. He moved freely through soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae and blues rather than settling into a single lane. His studio career opened with Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley in 1974, followed by Pressure Drop in 1975 and Some People Can Do What They Like in 1976. Double Fun arrived in 1978, Secrets in 1979 and Clues in 1980; the live set Maybe It’s Live followed in 1982. He continued recording through to Drive, released in 2003, the year of his death.

For a wide audience he remains inseparable from Addicted to Love and the video that came to stand for the glamour and excess of the 1980s. That hit sits alongside Simply Irresistible and earlier pieces such as Johnny & Mary — songs that have stayed in heavy rotation on radio and in cover sets long after he was gone. Later compilations, including The Very Best of the Island Years in 2005 and subsequent anniversary editions, have kept the catalogue visible. Posthumous single releases under his name as late as 2021 and 2024 show how the recordings continue to be worked and reintroduced.

What the partnership is built to do

By folding publishing, masters and name, image and likeness rights into a single relationship with Primary Wave, the estate is placing the work inside a company set up for sustained catalogue campaigns: placement in film and television, fresh marketing, and the day-to-day infrastructure that keeps songs earning and circulating. Whether that yields a major reissue programme, a documentary or a run of high-profile synchronisations has not been set out. For now the partnership itself is the news — a clear signal that Palmer’s music is being treated as a living asset rather than a closed book.

Listeners who already know the records will recognise the stakes. Palmer’s best-known work still carries the weight of its original era without sounding trapped inside it, and the breadth of the catalogue — from the early Island albums through the late studio sets — leaves room for more than one kind of revival. What Primary Wave and the estate choose to do next remains unannounced. The deal, at least, is in place.