The $750,000,000 Tip
A tip from Paul McCartney may have cost Michael Jackson his friendship with Paul McCartney but in the process made him $750 Million Dollars.
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The $750,000,000 Tip 💵
A tip from Paul McCartney may have cost Michael Jackson his friendship with Paul McCartney but in the process made him $750 Million Dollars.
Paul McCartney, a member of The Beatles, & Michael Jackson started becoming close in the late 70’s & early 80’s while collaborating on songs and being around each other in the music industry.
They ended up sharing lots of business advice and songwriting advice with each other.
This would turn out to be a bad choice on Paul’s end. After hearing how lucrative music publishing rights could be from Paul & after careful deliberation, in 1985 Michael Jackson bid on and bought ATV (Associated TeleVision), a famous British television broadcaster, for $47.5M.
The Beatles did not own all of their publishing at the time.
However, MJ had the funds & understood that there was real $$$ to be made off of publishing, and had his attorney John Branca bid on ATV.
Michael ended up in total owning 251 of the Beatles’ songs as well as 4,000 other songs and musical sound effects.
This included the songs, “Let it Be”, “Yesterday”, and “Hey Jude”, some of the Beatles most popular songs.
After being asked by Paul why he went behind his back & bid on his music, Michael allegedly responded with, “It’s just business, Paul."
McCartney was not pleased. “I think it’s dodgy to do something like that,” he once said of the purchase. “To be someone’s friend, and then buy the rug they’re standing on.”
Here is a link to Paul describing his side of the story:
A decade after the initial deal, Jackson sold 50 percent of ATV to Sony for $95 million, creating the music publishing company Sony/ATV that today owns rights of not only Beatles songs but others from artists such as Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift, amongst others.
Following Jackson’s death, his estate agreed to sell the remaining 50% to SONY/ATV in 2016 for $750M.
As people ponder the best business moves made by entertainers, MJ's purchase of ATV has to be near the top.
Music Is Never Too Old 👴🏾
Consider creative campaigns that promote a range of your tracks released in the last 3-5 years rather than just focusing on brand new releases. Then, double down on the tracks that generate the most Shazam and/or TikTok activity, maximizing attention and, ultimately, consumption.
"In the recorded music business, ‘frontline’ (new music) has traditionally been considered any track less than 18 months old. ‘Catalog’ was any music older than that 18 month period. This distinction — while mostly arbitrary to everyday fans — meant a lot to how money was allocated to a recording artist’s career."
Full article on Chartmetric
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The Weeknd has signed a long-term partnership with Universal Music Group including Universal Music Publishing Group & Republic Records.
Creative($) of the week 👩🏽🎨
Theron Thomas - Singer-Songwriter | Instagram | Website
Links 🔗
Kaytranada, Anderson .Paak “Twin Flame”
Dolby Atmos Renderer
Venice Magazine
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