I have heard a rumor that during the mid-80’s, when Michael Jackson had more money than he knew what to do with, he was involved in a fierce bidding war against Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono for the rights to many Beatles songs (that is, the ones credited to Lennon/McCartney).
This much I understand:
–There are sync rights, which are owned solely by the record company, which are the rights to a particular recording of a song.
–There are songwriter’s rights, which include the lyrics, any cover versions of the song, and re-printing.
So my question is, 1) what exactly was Jackson competing for, especially since McCartney is still alive, 2) who currently controls the usage of Beatles songs in movies, TV, adverts, etc?
I know that Nike used to use “Revolution” to sell sneakers in the 80’s, and Phillips used “Getting Better” in many of their commercials, and I know there was a bit of trouble regarding the use of original Beatles songs vs. cover versions in the recent film “I Am Sam.” So obviously someone’s getting paid here. Who?
There will be more knowledgeable people along shortly, but the best way for me to describe what Michael Jackson bought would be to say: publishing rights. He gets to license where the songs get played and gets the broadcast fees from that use.
IIRC, Sony AND Jackson own the PUBLISHING rights. That means that if you want to record a Beatles song, you have to get their permission and pay a fee. It does not allow you to use an orginal Beatles version. That is why you hear someone else’s version of some songs used in commercials. The Nike “Revolution” ad used the original recording and the it was quickly pulled.
I also believe that MJ did everything behind closed doors. Paul didn’t have a chance to bid on the songs. When he found out, the deal was already done. He tried to buy them “back”, but MJ would have nothing of it.