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Michael Jackson’s death has already started murmurs of conspiracy theories.
Joe Jackson’s recent statement that he believed there was “foul play” involved in his son’s death has only added fuel to the fire. Recent reports of Jackson expressing his intention to give Sir Paul McCartney back the famous “Beatles” catalog have sparked the most explosive "conspiracy theory" to date! It is said that Jackson wanted to return the catalog now estimated to be worth $400 million or more back over to McCartney.
Sources have quoted Michael Jackson as saying “ Because it was the right thing to do.”
Was Jackson murdered before he could give Paul McCartney his music catalog back?
Remember this is all just a "conspiracy theory" being passed around....
It has been said that during the time Jackson was recording “The girl is mine” and “Say Say, Say ”, and “Pipes of Peace” with Paul McCartney the two artists became very close. Jackson mentioned to McCartney he wanted to buy the Beatles catalog. Apparently Sir Paul brushed off the comment as a joke. But in in 1985 Jackson beat the other bids and acquired the Beatles catalog and Music Publishing company ATV for $47. 5 million dollars with the help of his attorney, and advisor John Branca. This purchase upset McCartney, who had “reportedly” chosen not to purchase the company.
Paul McCartney “I feel privileged to have hung out and worked with Michael,” McCartney said in a statement posted on his Web site. “He was a massively talented boy man with a gentle soul. His music will be remembered forever and my memories of our time together will be happy ones.”
(WIKI ) FAB FOUR PHOTO
ATV was later merged with Sony which is co -owned by the Michael Jackson Trust went on to become the 3rd largest music publisher in the world. The U.K. Daily Mirror source reported that Michael told his lawyers “he was sad he no longer talks to Sir Paul”, and said he “wanted to make things right." So will Jackson's wishes be honored?
Joel Katz one of Jackson’s entertainment attorney’s, reportedly said in an e- mail he is traveling to L.A. to be with the Jackson family, and will also meet with “many of his professional associates.” Katz declined to provide any further details.
Katz: “Michael Jackson was a perfectionist and his business affairs are worldwide” “Many of them are quite ongoing and will be dealt with appropriately.”
At the present time Sony/ATV owns or manages over 600,000 copyrights of major recording artists of the past such as Jimi Hendrix, Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers,nd current stars like John Mayer, Akon, Wyclef Jean, Shakira,and KT Tunstall. The Beatles collection however is undoubtedly the coveted Holy Grail of music. Sony reportedly has stated it plans to keep their right and control over the Beatles collection which contains more than 200 songs by John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney.
Reports say that questions are already being raised over the 2002 will’s “authenticity”, and the innuendos will only rise in days to come.
2005 poll on CNN
77% Beatles should own songs
11% Public domain
8% Jackson
4 % hedge funds
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Comments
McCartney should have never sold the
rights to the Lennon/McCartney songs
to Michael Jackson!
Paul didn't sell the rights -- He just didn't bid enough or in time to buy them when they came on the market. Don't know the whole story anymore, but the rights were owned by Northern Songs and each Beatle had a share. The rights somehow got sold to ATV -- and MJ bought the ATV catalog.
This whole conspiracy theory looks like the product of a very FERTILE mind -- as in full of s**t!
Origins: This is one of those items which is primarily true, but the answer needs to be heavily qualified in order to avoid being misleading.
First off, when we talk about someone owning the "rights" to songs, what we're discussing are publishing rights. Typically, songwriters assign the publishing rights for their songs to music publishing companies, who perform a number of marketing and promotional services to generate revenue for the songwriters they represent:
Exploitation: One of the more important functions of song publishers is "plugging" songs — getting artists interested in recording a songwriter's work. Your song doesn't make any money if nobody uses it, and song plugging was an especially important aspect of the publishing business prior to the 1960s, when many songwriters were not also performers and primarily supplied tunes for other singers.
* Licensing: Music publishers also administer the granting and collection of royalties for various types of licenses:
FORGET IT. JACKSON BOUGHT THE LEGAL RIGHTS, PERIOD. MCCARTNEY CHOSE NOT TO BID, SO HE WAS AN ARROGANT IDIOT WHO TOOK JACKSON AS A LITTLE NOTHING. WELL, JACKSON BEAT HIM TO THE PUNCH. THAT'S CALLED BIG BUSINESS. MCCARTNEY ALSO TREATED JOHN LENNON BADLY, WHICH IS WHY THE BEATLES REALLY BROKE UP.
Mechanical licenses: Songwriters receive royalties whenever someone sells recorded versions of their songs. If a songwriter records his own work, he receives royalties from his record label; if someone else records a cover version of his song, the songwriter receives royalties from that artist's record label.
Synchronization licenses: Songwriters receive royalties when their songs are sychronized to visual images, typically for use in films, television programs, and commercials.
Print licenses: Songwriters receive royalties for the sale of their songs in printed form, generally either as sheet music or entries in songbooks. Publishers who wish to quote or include song lyrics in a printed work must also obtain permission (and negotiate fees) with whoever holds the publishing rights to those songs.
Performing rights licenses: Songwriters receive royalties when their songs are performed live for profit or broadcast on the radio, although these licenses are usually administered by performing rights societies such as ASCAP or BMI rather than publishing companies themselves.
4/ The key point here is that holding the publishing rights to songs doesn't really give the rightsholder much Beatles "power" over those songs. The rightsholder has some latitude in negotiating royalty rates and determining who may use a song in film or print its lyrics, but that's about it. The chief benefit to owning the publishing rights of songs is that standard publishing agreements call for royalties to be split 50-50 between the publisher and the songwriter(s), so owning the publishing rights to popular songs can be a lucrative form of income.
5/ The Beatles assigned their publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by Beatles manager Brian Epstein and music publisher Dick James in 1963. The Beatles (particularly John Lennon and Paul McCartney) were soon earning so much money from songwriting royalties, record sales, concert performances, and merchandise licensing that they were losing over 90% of their income in taxes, and they were advised to find a way of receiving their revenue in the form of capital gains rather than income (the former being taxed at a much lower rate), such as selling their song rights or putting their money into a public company. The Beatles opted for the latter route, and Northern Songs went public on the London Stock Exchange in 1965. Initially, Lennon and McCartney each retained 15% of the shares, George Harrison and Ringo Starr held 1.6% between them, Brian Epstein's NEMS company was assigned 7.5%, and Dick James and Charles Silver (Northern Songs' chairman) retained a total of 37.5%.
6/ In 1969, however, the Beatles lost a buyout bid for control of Northern Songs when Dick James and Charles Silver sold their share of the company to Sir Lew Grade, head of Associated Television Corporation (ATV).
In 1984, ATV's 4,000-song music catalog was put up for sale, and Michael Jackson (who had coincidentally been introduced to the benefits of song ownership
by Paul McCartney himself) eventually outbid all other prospective buyers for it, including Paul McCartney, who wanted to buy back the rights to the Beatles' songs but was apparently unable or unwilling to raise enough money to pay for the thousands of other songs in the ATV catalog as well. So, for $47.5 million, Jackson acquired the publishing rights to most of the Beatles songs. (The four songs issued on the Beatles' first two singles — "Love Me Do" b/w "P.S. I Love You" and "Please Please Me" b/w "Ask Me Why" — were not part of the package since they were published before the formation of Northern Songs, and the r
7/ and the rights to those songs are now controlled by McCartney's MPL Communications. ATV also did not own the rights to George Harrison songs published after Harrison's songwriting contract with Northern Songs expired in 1968, but they did hold the rights to various other Lennon-McCartney songs not recorded by the Beatles.)
8/ Another key point here is that although Michael Jackson received 50% of the royalties generated by Beatles songs by virtue of his ownership of the publishing rights, Paul McCartney and John Lennon (and Lennon's estate, now that he's dead) have always received their 50% songwriter's share of the royalties for all Lennon-McCartney songs. Neither ATV's nor Michael Jackson's acquisition of Northern Songs changed that, and Michael Jackson did not receive royalties that would otherwise be going to the Beatles had he not acquired the publishing rights to their songs (except that, obviously, if Paul McCartney had managed to outbid Jackson for the publishing rights to the Beatles catalog, he and Lennon's estate would be splitting 100% of the royalties rather than 50%).
9/ As a closing note, we should mention that Sony Corp. paid Michael Jackson $95 million in 1995 to merge ATV with Sony and form Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a 50-50 joint venture, so it's probably more correct to say that Jackson owned half the rights to the Beatles catalog.
On 25 June 2009, Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Los Angeles.
Last updated: 25 June 2009
Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2009 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson.
Sources Sources:
Hilburn, Robert. "The Long and Winding Road."
Los Angeles Times. 22 September 1985 (Home; p. 60).
Horn, John. "Jackson Sells Beatles Songs to Sony."
Associated Press. 9 November 1995.
McCabe, Peter and Robert D. Schonfeld. Apple to the Core.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972. ISBN 0-671-80353-0 (pp. 141-162).
Chuck..you are an Idiot! Did Paul McCartney tell you this himself? What about the deplorable way Lennon treated HIM? (not to mention how he treated the other Beatles, his ex-wife, his son Julian and a whole host of friends and family!) George was not speaking to him at the time of his death and his Liverpool relatives had not seen him in almost a decade! You don't know what you are talking about. You only know HALF the story, my friend.
The break-up of the Beatles was a sad dissolution of friendship and ALL of them wanted out ....for different reasons.
It has been disclosed that MARTIANS have been involved in the killing of Michael Jackson! A UFO's landing at neverland 4 years ago was covered up!
GREED from MC CARTNEY handlers killed Michael Jackson. All the allegations like gay thingy, child molestation, extortionist, doctors, drugs, all kinds of conspiracies against Michael Jackson. I believed that the music publishing company had something to do with Michael Jackson death. Too bad Paul McCartney, you are not dedicated and devoted to your music industry, you and your handlers sabotaged this whole thing so it wasn't Michael Jackson faults that he bought your Beatles Catalog, The weirdo, freak, gay , and little tiny voice took your advice to buy a music publishing company, he saw it as a brilliant and what a SMART MICHAEL JACKSON, he did it for he loved music and you didn't. He bought your catalog for $47,5 million because you were broke and can't afford to buy it. My GIRL IS MINE NOW , Paul McCartney, You didn't love her so I bought it and it's MINE NOW . MY GIRL (catalog) IS MINE- Say, say Paul McCartney
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