Kate Bush Gives Hope to Indie Musicians Everywhere
Tend to your art like it matters. Tend to your business like it will too.
In the weeks after being featured on Stranger Things, Kate Bush’s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” made $2.3 million from streaming alone.
The fan favorite scene from Stranger Things season 4 used Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.”
It climbed the Spotify charts, became the sixth biggest song in the world for 2022, and was featured in over 2 million TikTok videos.
It even earned her a Guinness World Record: the longest time it’s ever taken a song to reach No. 1 in the UK—36 years and 310 days.
But here’s the question:
Did Kate Bush actually see any of that money?
In an era where superstar artists are selling their catalogs to hedge funds and private equity firms, you might assume that this song’s resurgence was engineered in a marketing meeting—crafted for optimal ROI, built to go viral.
But the truth is more organic.
And for indie creators, more hopeful.
Because Kate Bush didn’t just get lucky. She got paid.
Because she owned everything.
Bush is the sole shareholder of Noble & Brite Ltd, a publishing company she founded in 1976. She also owns her own label (Fish People), her master recordings, and her artistic direction.
When Stranger Things came calling, she didn’t rubber-stamp the deal. She requested the scripts. She reviewed the footage. She made sure the usage fit the mood and meaning of the scene.
It wasn’t a licensing deal. It was a creative partnership.
Here’s what’s really impressive.
Kate Bush had no idea this moment would come. She had no idea how huge the song would become.
Yet she still made the diligent, unglamorous decisions that would allow her to benefit if it ever did.
She signed off on her company’s accounting year after year.
She kept the rights to her work.
She even set up a private pension fund in the early 2000s—before streaming, before virality, before any of this.
She was building a fortress. Quietly. For decades.
I went full nerd on the research here, and reviewed all of her financial statements going back 20 years. What I found gave me very warm feelings for her, and for indie musicians everywhere.
Her accounts receivable (money owed to her company) went from £208K to £2.39M in a single year.
Her bank balance went from £2.5M to £9.5M in two years.
Her net assets went from £2M to nearly £10M.
All of this tipped off from one cultural moment—one scene in one episode of Stranger Things.
Because she owned the rights. Because she did the accounting. Because she said yes to that scene, not just any scene.
What does this mean for indie musicians, for indie artists of all kinds?
Most musicians don’t own their rights. Most never look at their balance sheets. Most are told to focus on “the art” and let the suits handle the rest.
Kate Bush tended to both.
She made transcendent art. And she took care of business.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Taylor Swift went to extraordinary lengths to regain ownership of her master recordings—rerecording her old albums, taking control of her catalog, and rewriting the rules of the music industry in the process.
Kate Bush never had to do that.
She owned her masters from the beginning.
Where Swift fought to reclaim control, Bush structured her career to never give it up.
Same goal. Different path.
This is what business discipline looks like in creative practice:
Owning your IP
Keeping clean books
Setting up structures before the payoff
Saying no until the right opportunity arrives
Try this:
Ask yourself:
If something I made today blew up 10 years from now—would I still benefit?
Start building that answer. Even if it’s quiet. Even if no one’s watching.
Because one day, they might.
And when they do?
You’ll want to be ready.
Watch Kate Bush’s original music video for “Running Up That Hill.”
