AndrewD wrote:
Interesting to see that Gerry still made 80 000 pounds a year from "Baker Street", I wonder what Sir Paul Mac is pulling in each year???
Sir Paul doesn't own those rights...
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Its not quite that simple, as I understand it. The publishing deal between Lennon-McCartney and Northern Songs was a 50/50 royalty split. The Beatles / Lennon-McCartney songs (minus
Love me do and
Please please me and their B-sides - composed before incorporation of
Northern Songs - and all post-1968 George Harrison songs) were sold to ATV in 1969. ATV's entire publishing (more than just the Beatles stuff - approx 4 000 songs) was sold to Michael Jackson for $47 million in 1984. BUT, this was only ATV's 50% publishing share (as per the original deal with Northern Songs). So Macca and Yoko (Lennon's estate) has always received - and will continue to receive - 50% of all L-M royalties. In 1995 Sony paid MJ approx $ 95 mill to merge ATV and Sony, and Sony now co-own that 50% publishing with MJ's estate. It has been reported that MJ put up his share in the publishing as collateral for a huge loan to Sony - so its possible he (or his estate) has lost (or may lose) it to Sony.
Moreover, McCartney owns a whack of non-Beatles publishing. His company
MPL Music Publishing is one of the largest publishing outfits (more than 25 000 copyrights), and owns, eg, the entire Buddy Holly catalogue, the scores to
Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, and
Grease.
The widely spread rumour that MJ had included a return of these copyrights to Macca in his will was proven to be untrue upon MJ's death. More importantly, I've read that under the
US Copyright Act of 1976, songwriters are able to regain control of publishing rights on pre-1978 compositions after 56 years. Thus McCartney will be able to regain control over Beatles compositions from 1962 in 2018 and songs from 1970 in 2026. Macca will be 76 in 2018 - nice retirment money or a boost to his 800 mill pound estate!
