The Beatles

[Josephus]

Wish I had a piece of this action. Does Wacko still own the rights? Not sure how that works.

The Beatles have broken multiple chart records around the world following the September 9, 2009 (9-9-09) CD release of their digitally re-mastered catalogue.

In the major music markets of North America, Japan and the UK, consumers purchased more than 2.25 million copies of The Beatles' re-mastered albums, individually and in two multiple-CD boxed sets, one in stereo and one in mono, during the first five days of release.

Canada: The Beatles have 15 of the top 20 catalogue titles including all of the top 11. The stereo boxed set is a new entry in the current albums chart at number four, the highest debut for a boxed set in Canada since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales. Cumulative sales across all titles were just under 160,000 over the counter.

[saskganesh]

Jackson merged the catalogue with Sony for cash, then took a loan, giving Sony the option to later increase their stake to 75%. I do not know if they have exercised that.

[Barrister]

Does Wacko still own the rights? Not sure how that works.

I can state with full confidence that Michael Jackson no longer owns the rights to the Beatles.

[citizen k]

Does Wacko still own the rights? Not sure how that works.

I can state with full confidence that Michael Jackson no longer owns the rights to the Beatles.

Does that include his estate ?

[garbon]

Horrible.

[Barrister]

Does Wacko still own the rights? Not sure how that works.

I can state with full confidence that Michael Jackson no longer owns the rights to the Beatles.

Does that include his estate ?

I didn't say anything about his estate...

[Josephus]

Does Wacko still own the rights? Not sure how that works.

I can state with full confidence that Michael Jackson no longer owns the rights to the Beatles.

Does that include his estate ?

I didn't say anything about his estate...

Lawyers.....always about the fine print.

[Agelastus]

Does Wacko still own the rights? Not sure how that works.

I can state with full confidence that Michael Jackson no longer owns the rights to the Beatles.

Does that include his estate ?

I didn't say anything about his estate...

Lawyers.....always about the fine print.

That's where the money is... 

[The Minsky Moment]

Jackson's estate does not own any rights in the Beatles recordings either.

His family trust does own a 50% stake in a company called Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, a New York-based limited liability company.  That company owns the rights to the recordings.

[Josephus]

So does Paul, Ringo and various estates get anything out of this? I'm never quite sure how royalties and all that stuff works.

[Barrister]

So does Paul, Ringo and various estates get anything out of this? I'm never quite sure how royalties and all that stuff works.

They get some of it.

As I understand it there are different kinds of rights.  In particular there are publishing rights (the kind MJ bought), and performance rights (which the Beatles members still control).

Snopes has a good summary (which I double-checked to make sure I had the facts right ).

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/jackson.asp

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I've listened to some of those new cds. very nice remasters. I will buy a few select albums from this release. Never trust anyone who dislikes the Beatles (as a group, individuals are fair game)

[Josephus]

Thanks for that link BB. Makes sense.

Buddha, yeah I have no interest in the whole boxed set, but Abbey Road, Rubber Soul and possibly Pepper sound interesting to me.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

hmmm
White Album
Rubber Soul
Abbey Road

are certain for me. I can be a sucker though when prices are good on stuff like this.

[garbon]

Never trust anyone who dislikes the Beatles

I've never said that I should be trusted.