Variety and TMZ just confirmed the rumour! The Michael Jackson Estate is in talks to sell half of its music catalogue for $800 to $900 million.
This deal will include Michael’s music, publishing, the Musical and the upcoming biopic and maybe more and it will be to Sony Music and Eldridge Industries which both partnered to purchased Bruce Springsteen’s catalogue in 2021.
While Branca said he would never sell Mijac in 2016 when the Estate sold the other 50% of Sony/ATV owned by Michael to Sony, it is now clear that the huge amount, which will be the biggest deal to date in the music industry to date, is too good to refuse for the Estate co-executors.
It has also been reported that Estate will remain in complete control and manage the catalogue.
Many Estates and artists still alive have been selling their music catalogues in recent years such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Justin Bieber, all sold between $200 to $500 million with a total ownership to the buyers.
Is this a music industry trend that the Estate is now following? Or do they really need the cash as Michael Jackson’s recorded-music catalogue is one of the most lucrative in history?
During his life time, Michael Jackson believed in owning his rights to his music and also believed in music publishing as a profitable tool seeing that he purchased ATV and other music publishing rights throughout his career. So why selling? John Branca told us he would never sell Michael’s catalogue, but I guess he is running out of TikTok content so here we are!
For sure, many Michael Jackson fans will wake up to the news feeling angry, sad and disappointed. Not only 50% of Michael Jackson music rights will go to Sony but also that the Estate will keep control and manage the catalogue (as they did such a good job on “Thriller40”).
It is unclear what will happen if the deal is made. What it will mean for Michael Jackson, his heir and his fans.
This hasn’t been confirmed by the Michael Jackson Estate or Sony Music yet.
This is unfortunately what happens when lawyers run estates not people that truly care about a musical legacy. The money blinds them instead of doing what is right! If Michael was still here this would never happen.
Quite frankly the “THRILLER 40” campaign was abysmal. Thriller 50 will be even worse. Sony are purposely not bothering to promote Michael properly in order to get his back catalogue for little as possible by making it look like he can’t sell in big numbers anymore which we all know isn’t true. If Sony had bothered to promote Thriller 40 it would have done so much better than principle sold on a pre-order basis without proper promotion .
Quite frankly the “THRILLER 40” campaign was abysmal. Thriller 50 will be even worse. Sony are purposely not bothering to promote Michael properly in order to get his back catalogue for little as possible by making it look like he can’t sell in big numbers anymore which we all know isn’t true. If Sony had bothered to promote Thriller 40 it would have done so much better than principly sold on a pre-order basis without proper in promotion .
Both the Estate management and the family need a massive kick up the backside and reminding how GREAT MICHAEL was and to APPRECIATE how UNIQUE his legacy is! The final decisions should go to his kids and the ownership of his music and investments truly belongs to them, His kids are now old enough to decide these things for themselves. The running of the estate should be like that of Elvis, where Lisa-Marie had the final say on the way the estate was run. The problem with $ony is, that it’s about money and denying artists their rights to their music.. Meatloaf spent 20 years fighting them for his what he was owed from Sony owning the rights to “Bat out of hell” , Lets not allow Michael’s greatness get chewed up and spat out by $ony the same way. They never liked the fact that he knew more about the music business then they ever will!