.

Personally, I'd like to see the surviving members of the band own them again.


http://money.cnn.com/2005...tm?cnn=yes


kissmynonspellinAzzedit
[Edited 5/6/05 5:26am]

This news has been circulating for about 4 years now.

They're the biggest band ever in the history of music, you could at least spell their f****g name correctly

Yes! Paul will be there to get them, I had heard that he had been trying to get them from Mike before, he wouldn't sell them tho


Strawberry Fields Forever

Who are The Beetles?

minneapolisgenius said:

freakyfeet said:

what about the Grumbleweeds?

Lizzy7701 said:

JackieBlue said:

this is just another example of how crazy things have gotten in the Michael Jackson camp.The guy spends more money than he makes,and he's having some serious financial troubles.He's gonna lose everything.Perhaps if he didn't have to keep "paying off" people,he wouldn't be in this mess? Does he even listen to his managers and accountants?

i thought MJ had a vast amount of cash tied up in commercial property?

TheFrogSpawn said:

These days,it seems like his cash in tied up in lawyer fees and payouts to young accusers

I was under the impression that after a certain number of years after the song was first registered (maybe 50), the rights to the songs automatically got returned to the original composer, or is that only after death? Im sure I read in a Paul McCratney biography that he would no longer try and buy the songs off Jacko, despite being a billionaire, because sooner or later they'd be returned to him anyway. Anyone know any more about this.

CrozzaUK said:

are you thinking of copyright expiring after death / expiry of time? i don't believe it reverts to the author at any point as a matter of course - so unless there's something contractual along these lines, i doubt it. US law may be v different to uk law tho, and i don't know much 'bout this field anyway.

um, i dont think u understand the nature of the situation. The copyright still remains with Paul McCartney, he wrote the song, its his work, he owns it, he makes money from it as do the other members of the Beatles.

Michael Jackson owns the publishing rights to the music, i.e. he controls how it is distributed, who uses it, how it is released etc, he earns money from its distribution and use, ie everytime a cd is released MJ earns money from its publishing and dissemination througout the world, via records, radio play, mtv play, cover versions.

But McCartney still earns song writing credits.

It actually works out that MJ earns more money from the music than McCartney does, but hey, McCartney was given the chance to buy it for $40million back in the 80s which wouldnt hav dented his fortune in a major way. He could have afforded it back then, he declined the offer then complained MJ had stolen it from him.

Also the so called "Beatles Catalog" doesnt exist its SONY/ATV its the 3rd largest intellectual property group in the world apparently and is worth a lot more than what is reported in the media. Real estimates of its current worth are well over $1billion dollars but it could fetch a lot more since its worth increases dramatically every year. Other artists included in the catalog include Mariah Carey/Elvis/Michael Jackson/The Beatles/Sly and the Family Stone and some 2000 other artists.

Allegedly mj is in $200million debt but he has been offered tour deals worth up to $1billion dollars including the Trump deal. So he could solve this problem with a quick swoop of a pen. I doubt therefore, that the Catalog is going anywhere.

thanks for the info.

I think I'll bid on this catalog

Yes. I will.

freakyfeet said:

Knowing you, what you just said doesn't suprise me at all. They have been saying that Michael is bankrupt since 1995. I don't buy it all. Ok? A black man owns that catalog. He bought it. Get over it. If Paul wanted his catalog so bad, he shouldn't of put it up to sale in the first place.

FunkyBrotha said:

He has some billionaire backing him until that happens...
so MJ is gonna keep the ATV catalogue for quite a while...

I don't mind MJ owning the catalog, but it was kind of inconsiderate of him to sell their best songs to shoe commercials. Like they raped Queen's "We Will Rock You" in that Pepsi ad. It's just tasteless, and heartless.
[Edited 5/6/05 13:02pm]

I've heard a McCartney interview where he said that the songs came to him for free so he didn't agree with the idea of paying for them. The greatest irony is Paul McCartney introduced the idea of owning publishing to MJ when he showed the catalogue of songs that he already owned such as Buddy Holly, and Michael said to him "I'm gonna buy your songs one day"... and then he did, so it's Pauls own fault

It was about Michaels last smart move.

mynameisnotsusan said:

I don't know how "smart" it was. Things aren't going so well for MJ these days. Something tells me they'd be a lot better if he let go of those Beatles songs.

He wont lose it.

When you buy the publishing catalog of someone you are the copyright holder which is now a partnership between Sony and MJ.

The songwriters still get the writers portion but the big publishing share goes to Sony/MJ.

They have articles that explain the situation more detailed than what I just described. Google "music publishing"

(Chris Rock voice) 270 Million? Did MJ buy Brazil?

I wouldn't have merged half of ATV to Sony to begin with.

Ray Charles used to let his publishing income sit in the bank and live off of the money from live performances.

He would borrow against the publishing income to buy property and pay the loans back quickly.

It's using your own money as a bank the way business people do it.
[Edited 5/7/05 12:37pm]

um, again, another misconception, MJ did not SELL half of it to Sony, they merged together, the ATV catalogue hence became the SONY/ATV catalogue, they also bought the rights to a massive amount of country songs later on. This ensured that Michael received payments from a massive amount of artists. It was a smart move because along with these increased royalties and a catalogue which would incrementally increase at a faster rate in terms of size and worth, MJ also received something like $100million dollars as an incentive to merge.

FunkyBrotha said:

That is more accurate. I'll correct my post.

To me in a 50/50 situation like that Sony will find some way to strong arm MJ.

I would have used my income from ATV to buy other publishing companies. That's what McCartney does. And his various companies are all owned by MPL Communications.

He should sell it on Ebay. That would be fucking megamad watching the bids.

I trust Mike with his business dicisions. Unlike many other ppl, I don´t think he´s an idiot.