Michael Jackson owned Stevie's music publishing?

vivfox · #1 06-26-2009, 07:08 PM

"Gone Too Soon"
Posted by Mehrsa Baradaran
June 26, 2009

For the past 30 minutes, this man in a car parked right outside of my house has been blasting Dangerous. When “Will you be there?” played, about three other guys on the street stopped to sing along. (I live in Harlem where it’s not uncommon to sing while you are walking or just standing there in the middle of the day). I have to admit, I got a little choked up listening to those guys. It took me back to listening to this very song on repeat in my room in high school. Even though there are more important things going on in the world, it’s hard not to take a moment to consider the legend.

And since this is a business-focused blog, I thought I would mention Mr. Jackson’s terrible state of financial affairs. It seems that he was indebted to some banks and a few foreign creditors for over $500 million. Even though his assets are twice that, his estate may not be able to keep his most important asset, ATV Music. He bought the firm, which owned copyrights to the entire Beatles back catalog, songs such as Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind, and the works of Joni Mitchell and Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks - all for $46 million. In the 1990's, he sold half of the company to Sony for more than $150 million. It says here that the joint venture is now estimated to be worth around one billion dollars. Trick is that when he needed more money, he used his stake in ATV/Sony as collateral to secure $200 million in borrowings from the Fortress Investment Group. If he defaulted, Fortress would gain the share.

http://www.theconglomerate.org/2009/...-too-soon.html

vivfox · #2 06-26-2009, 07:15 PM

As Michael Jackson's life end, a financial battle begins... and ...
Daily Mail - UK
... the entire Beatles back-catalogue and songs such as Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind and the works of Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks, for £28.8million. ...

All eyes are on who will get his 50 per cent share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing - by far his biggest financial asset.
He initially bought ATV Music Publishing, which owned copyrights to most of The Beatles' back catalogue, for £28.8million in 1985. In the 1990s he merged it with Sony Music Publishing in a deal worth around £90million.
The joint venture now owns copyright to more than 750,000 songs, including the complete works of artists such as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell as well as newer acts such as Lady GaGa.
Jackson's cut is currently estimated to be worth around £600million

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...catalogue.html

Macfanforever · #3 06-26-2009, 08:21 PM

I know he owned the Beatles catalog,but I did not know about Stevie's music.

snicksfan85 · #4 06-26-2009, 08:59 PM

Sony has a stake in her music because Stevie doesn't want to have to hire someone to do the licensing and everyday administrative work of a publisher. Sony ATV doesn't own the full rights. They only have a half of the publishers stake in the songs. Stevie gets the 50% for the writer's share plus half of the 50% the publisher share for Welsh Witch Music (or 25%) leaving a quarter to Sony.

MacMan · #5 06-27-2009, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snicksfan85

Sony has a stake in her music because Stevie doesn't want to have to hire someone to do the licensing and everyday administrative work of a publisher. Sony ATV doesn't own the full rights. They only have a half of the publishers stake in the songs. Stevie gets the 50% for the writer's share plus half of the 50% the publisher share for Welsh Witch Music (or 25%) leaving a quarter to Sony.

72 Tracks... Would that be pretty much all her solo stuff?

Link - SonyATV

snicksfan85 · #6 06-27-2009, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacMan

72 Tracks... Would that be pretty much all her solo stuff?

Link - SonyATV

They also have her Mac stuff.

That article makes it sound like Sony/ATV has the rights to her music. They don't. Stevie is her own publisher with Welsh Witch Music and owns the rights. Sony/ATV is the administrating publishing company because she doesn't want to have to deal with the business of songwriting (collecting royalties and all the accounting, licensing, writing contracts, etc.). That's what an administrating publisher does. They collect royalties on behalf of the artist and other publisher, plug songs, work out licensing, etc all for a small percentage (usually around 15-25%) of the publisher's share of royalties.