astro
August 24, 2006, 1:41am
1
Specifically this catalog . Is it currently getting more or less valuable as time goes by? I’m thinking that while many of the songs have iconic value they’re mostly far into golden oldies status at this point re radio play and album purchases, which is the main driver (I’m guessing) for a continuing income stream from the ownership rights.
Song catalogue
In 1963 The Beatles gave their song publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by Brian Epstein and music publisher Dick James. Northern Songs went public in 1965 with Lennon and McCartney each holding 15% of the company’s shares while Dick James and the company’s chairman, Charles Silver, held a controlling 37.5%. In 1969, following a failed attempt by Lennon and McCartney to buy back the company, James and Silver sold Northern Songs to British TV company Associated TeleVision (ATV), in which Lennon and McCartney received stock.
In 1985 ATV’s music catalogue was sold to Michael Jackson for a reported $47 million (beating McCartney’s bid), including the publishing rights to over 200 Beatles songs. A decade later Jackson and Sony merged their music publishing businesses. Since 1995 Jackson and Sony/ATV Music Publishing have jointly owned most of The Beatles’ songs. Sony later reported that Jackson had used his share of their co-owned Beatles’ catalogue as collateral for a loan from the music company. Meanwhile, Lennon’s estate and McCartney still receive their standard songwriter shares of the royalties.