MICHAEL JACKSON POSTER MOVIE

While he was worth his own fortune, one of the biggest songwriters and performers of all time, it helped to have the Beatles tracks in his back pocket, both to generate money and as backing for any big loans, he might need to have taken out. He had his own Neverland where he lived, just to name one larger-than-life purchase.Īnd the Beatles catalog provided him with some important collateral for continuing his big purchase life. “To be someone’s friend, and then buy the rug they’re standing on.” Benefit to Jackson “I think it’s dodgy to do something like that,” McCartney once said of Jackson’s purchase. “They’re the best songs that have ever been written.” “You can’t put a price on a Picasso… you can’t put a price on these songs, there’s no value on them,” Jackson allegedly said. So, Branca bid $30 million but other bids brought it up to $47.5 million. Then in 1984, Branca told him ATV was up for sale and the company owned 4,000 songs, including those 251 by the Beatles.Īt the time McCartney said it was out of his price range and Yoko Ono, who is Lennon’s surviving wife, said she was fine with Jackson owning them, rather than a huge corporation. When McCartney first gave Jackson the advice, the King of Pop got in contact with attorney John Branca, who helped Jackson buy the rights to 1960s songs he liked.

Jackson’s response to McCartney’s request was, “Oh Paul, that’s just business.” The Songs Up for Sale “The trouble is I wrote those songs for nothing and buying them back at these phenomenal sums, I just can’t do it.” “He won’t even answer my letters, so we haven’t talked and we don’t have that great a relationship,” McCartney explained in 2001. The two had forged a friendship in the 1970s, but that stopped after Jackson bought the songs. He no longer owned his own songs and had previously started buying other music, like tracks written by Buddy Holly. McCartney, who was also bidding on the music, felt betrayed and angered. But Jackson snuck in and wielded his financial power and got the lot. In 1985, however, those songs went back up for sale and McCartney was set to purchase them (Lennon had died in 1980). “It meant that whatever the lion’s share of the songs we did were taken by someone else.” “Very early on we got managed into a little situation,” McCartney said in an interview in 1989. So, for every time “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was used in a movie, the company got paid.īut in 1969, the British outfit Associated TeleVision was involved in a messy takeover of Northern Songs, which led McCartney and Lennon to sell off their shares of the company they’d started. in 1964 to generate revenues from their growing catalog. The two had formed a publishing company Northern Songs Ltd. With the Beatles, the publishing had originally gone to McCartney and John Lennon, who wrote the majority of the tracks. So, in the end, whoever owns the song, gets paid. Some of that goes to the record label, and some goes to the performer and songwriter.

MICHAEL JACKSON POSTER MOVIE

Understanding the Businessįor those who don’t know, music publishing can be a lucrative business.Įvery time a song is used in a television show or movie or some other arena, the user has to pay a licensing fee. Then just two years later on August 14, 1985, Jackson purchased the publishing rights to the majority of the Beatles’ catalog-some 251 songs-for $47 million, outbidding McCartney. And Jackson allegedly jokingly replied, “One day, I’ll own your songs.” That’s when McCartney talked to Jackson about investing in music publishing. The two had earlier collaborated on the song “The Girl Is Mine,” which was the lead single from Jackson’s seminal 1982 record, Thriller.

It began with the duo’s collaboration on the 1983 song, “Say Say Say,” featured on McCartney’s album, Pipes of Peace. Let’s investigate, shall we? The Musical Collaboration But is this all true? Is this how it went down? But then Jackson bought up The Beatles catalog. It was a good investment opportunity, McCartney told the King of Pop. The story has been part of popular music circle for decades: Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson-two of the biggest names in music history-were on a music video shoot and McCartney told Jackson about the idea to buy up song catalogs.

Michael jackson poster