Rod Stewart Halts Negotiations with Hipgnosis to Sell Song Catalog: ‘Not the Right Company’

Rod Stewart is holding on to his musical catalog for now.

After two years of negotiations with Hipgnosis Songs Capital, the rocker, 78, has opted not to sell his legendary catalog to the UK investment company, choosing instead to retain ownership himself.

“This catalog represents my life’s work,” he tells PEOPLE in a statement. “And it’s become abundantly clear after much time and due diligence that this was not the right company to manage my song catalog, career or legacy.”

Stewart is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and is known for hits like “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?,” “Maggie May” and “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright),” as well as his signature raspy voice and spiky blonde hair. His catalog reportedly contains more than 65,000 songs, and he is the second-most successful British solo artist of all time.

He began his career in bands like Faces and the Jeff Beck Group before going solo in the late 1960s and breaking through in 1971 with Every Picture Tells a Story. He put out his 31st album, The Tears of Hercules, in 2021.

Hipgnosis, meanwhile, calls itself “the first UK investment company offering investors a pure-play exposure to Songs and associated musical intellectual property rights.”

The company acquired the rights to Justin Bieber’s catalog for an estimated $200 million in January, and in 2021, acquired the music of Fleetwood Mac rockers Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, Shakira, Neil Young and more.

A spokesperson for Hipgnosis declined to comment when reached by PEOPLE, citing ongoing negotiations.

Billboard was first to report the news.