I know that is a weird question, but I am just curious as to why he didn't. Did he not have the money, did owning someone else's catalog gall him, what? And if he had bought the catalog, how would it be different than MJ owning it?

I apologize if this question annoys you, I just am really curious about it.

Because he's against the idea! The idea of someone owning music that they did not create!


I agree with him. nobody should own music they didn't create.


I feel Michael is in the wrong for owning the catalog. Not that Paul McCartney is any better as he owns many artist's songs as well.

Why would Prince want to buy Beatles catalog when he can sit down and write his own masterpieces for free??

MJ on the other hand can't do that... (write his own masterpieces for free) so he got to buy others.

Whether or not Prince actually cared to own these masters (though I for some reason thing he did not.... he probably wasn't even overly aware when they were up for bid), I highly doubt he would have had the money ot buy them.

I mean, dayum, we're talking about the Beatles Masters here!! Paul McCartney couldn't even hang on to them, and he's a billionaire now.

savoirfaire said:

Come to think of it, I can't believe any individual could buy these. I'm gonna look up the purchase price somewhere. Let's start with wikipedia.

Who cares about the Beatles? I don't think MJ really wants it he just did it to spite Paul McCartney!

prodigalfan said:

Oh please - what planet are you on???

kremlinshadow said:

Planet Earth

The story goes, when Paul McCartney was working with MJ he was always on about how he was going to buy back the Beatles catalogue. Then sometime later MJ buys the catalogue (I seem to remember it was a job lot with a lot of non-Beatles stuff too) and Paul was pretty upset about it. He'd made so much money off Thriller he could afford to do it, still, it was at a time when the value of publishing rights wasn't fully appreciated - as albums became re-issued on new formats like CD the value of the catalogue sky-rocketed - in fact probably most of MJs fortune came from this incisive business decision to buy at the right time.

I'm sure I read somewhere that MJ sold a big chunk of his acquired catalogue to Pepsi because he needed the cash...

So to answer the question, no one at the time realised how much money there was to be made off owning publshing rights, something Prince only came to realise in the mid-90s about his own catalogue.

It's not like Paul ever lacked for money. I think he was just lazy about buying the catalogue back

wlcm2thdwn said:

I don't think MJ did it to spite Paul but Paul gave MJ the idea. MJ being a shrewd businessman, bought the Beatles catalog. It didn't make him a good friend but if you were going to buy a catalog for profit what would be a better catalog than the Beatles? It was a good business decision. Friendship wise maybe not so much. I still however don't think he would shell out all that money just to spite Paul. He did it because what the catalog was worth.

I would much rather see Paul buy it back.

because he didnt want to

metalorange said:

To add to the story: Paul didn't have the $$ at the time and was trying to convince Yoko Ono to go in on the deal. She hedged, and MJ got it. (Yoko had lost alot of $$ investing in dairy cows at one point.)

I sure hope Paul NEVER EVER gets those songs back. that cry baby heartless bastard gets everything he deserves! I hope that lady takes everything from him!!

xplnyrslf said:

I heard once that back when Abba were massive they were Sweden's biggest importers of beef. Something to do with the exchange rate and tax made that a better way to get the maximum out of their money!