animalmystic

Ok this question is stemming from a conversation me and a music friend of mine were having the other day about Michael Jackson's owning the publishing rights to the Beatles catalog, And back and fourth on how to go about purchasing publishing rights or 100% ownership/control of a song. I know MJ doesn't outright own these songs, he just controls the publishing rights, while the studio retains the actual ownership of the song (i think), with I am sure a cut of any proceedes going to the studio, MJ and the Beatles.

My question, how do you go about doing this? Is there some open market/auction that is held that anybody can buy rights/publishing rights to music/songs? Do you have to go through a studio to inquire about this? Directly to the artist? My buddy mentioned a holding company of some sort, that holds these type of items?? Like the MJ thing and the Beatles, I heard Paul McCartney owns the rights to Bing Crosby's White Christmas, and makes a killing on it. How are publishing rights negotiated between the artist, studio and buyer of the music?

Anyways if somebody could shed some light on this would be great, any info is appreciated.

mndtrp

Recently, TVT (I think) sold the rights to several of their albums, including NIN's Pretty Hate Machine. I didn't look into it too far since I don't have a few million dollars, but I would assume you would contact the album company to toss in your bid.

Jason

This must be why Pretty Hate Machine and some other NIN stuff is now available on eMusic.

benedict

I think that there is less exploitation now when it comes to publishing rights, although new artistes are not in a strong negotiating position when starting out.

The Rolling Stones were poorly served in their early years and ended up ceding to their former manager, Allen Klein, the publishing rights to all of their songs to 1969 (and maybe one or two others form 1970). Paul McCartney took the same guy + John, George and Ringo to court in order to remove him from a position of influence over his & their affairs and effectively to dissolve the Beatles partnership.

There is some general information here and here. Scroll down in the second link for some info on Northern Songs, the publishing company for some of the earlier Beatles compositions.

animalmystic

Great links! Thanks for posting, I couldn't find much when I used Google.

If anybody else knows anything that would be great, please post.

Matt925

It's just a case of being in the right place in the right time. In the TVT/Nine Inch Nails case, TVT went bankrupt and the bank auctioned off all their assets to try to recover the money they were owed. I remember something like $3 million was expected for the rights to the album (not sure though) and supposedly it went for a lot less (to the indie label Rykodisc).

If you think it's a good business investment or you're a psychotic fan with a lot of money, you'd just have to keep your eyes peeled for auctions of this sort. Lots of rich people fall into desperate times.

animalmystic

Hmmm well from the replies it sounds like you need to be within the industry, or directly involved or know about how the industry works to even hear about when these things happen. Its not like TVT took an ad out in the NY Times and said "hey we are bankrupt, we are auctioning the rights off, come and bid" it sounds like to be a lot of insider info to get your heads up on stuff, and like Matt said, the right place at the right time.

Toad

The holder of the publishing rights can sell them anytime he/she wishes. Usually, it's the highest bidder. I believe this happened to the Beach Boys when the Wilsons' dad sold the publishing rights for virtually nothing in the early days.