海角大神

The estate of Michael Jackson is selling the artist鈥檚 stake in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog, which includes the music of such acts as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Taylor Swift.聽

After the sale, Sony Corp. will be the only owner of the catalogue. Songs written by Jackson and the master recordings of his songs are not part of the sale and the estate is holding onto the stake it currently holds in EMI Publishing.

Jackson is of course best known as one of the most successful musicians of all time, with his hits including 鈥淭hriller,鈥� 鈥淏illie Jean,鈥� and 鈥淢an in the Mirror.鈥� This past December, his 1982 album 鈥淭hriller鈥� became the first-ever work to be certified 30 times multi-platinum for sales in America. He is one of the highest-selling recording artists of all time.

But the singer also became a powerful figure behind the scenes when he acquired music that included the Beatles catalog, often called some of the best songs ever created.

Jackson acquired the company ATV, which had the Beatles鈥� music publishing catalogue, in 1985.聽

writes in his book 鈥淢ichael Jackson, Inc.鈥� that Beatles member Paul McCartney told Jackson how McCartney had been purchasing copyrights, including those for music by Buddy Holly. Jackson鈥檚 鈥渆ntrepreneurial instincts quickly clicked into gear,鈥� Greenburg writes.聽

Thomas Barrack, an investor in real estate whose company has a stake in Jackson鈥檚 Neverland Ranch, told Greenburg, 鈥淢ichael said, 鈥榃ow, I think there鈥檚 incredible value [in the Beatles鈥� songs] over time. Quite honestly, Michael didn鈥檛 know if they were worth $12 million or $18 million or $25 million. He just knew and anticipated correctly that over time the intellectual property was going to be worth a lot of money.鈥澛�

Industry watchers agree that the Sony/ATV catalogue is one of the most valuable ever. 鈥淪ony/ATV 鈥� is one of the jewels of the music industry,鈥� writes, while note, 鈥淒uring his lifetime, Jackson was among the first to recognize the value in controlling the rights to popular works.鈥�