Music Biz Insiders Say Sony-Jackson Deal Makes Sense
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – The magnitude of Sony Music Entertainment’s landmark recording contract with the estate of Michael Jackson raises an inevitable question: Is it a smart deal for the label?
Given Jackson’s superstar status, his influential creative legacy and the market’s seemingly insatiable appetite for all things MJ, the consensus of executives who handle works of other deceased music stars is an overwhelming “yes.”
Under the contract, which guarantees the estate between $200 million and $250 million, Sony will issue 10 releases of Jackson’s music through 2017, with the double-CD “This Is It” soundtrack counting as the first of these. Already in the pipeline is the planned November release of a collection of previously unreleased tracks and a 2011 reissue of Jackson’s seminal 1979 Epic album, “Off the Wall.”
The Jackson/Sony deal eclipses such recent headline-making unions as Live NationEntertainment’s pacts with Madonna and Jay-Z, pegged at $120 million and $150 million, respectively. And it places Jackson among a select group of artists who posthumously remain major wage earners: Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Jimi Hendrix, whose new album of unreleased material, “Valleys of Neptune,” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.
2009 Los Angeles Auto Show
If the North American auto show season has an official kickoff party, the Los Angeles Auto Show is it. In addition to world debuts of the 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe, 2011 Toyota Sienna and VW Up! Lite Concept, the 2009 LA Auto Show again played host to the Green Car of the Year announcement, which went to a diesel car for the second year in a row. The LA Auto Show is also a first chance to see and touch the cars unveiled around the world in the eight months since the New York Auto Show, which this year included jaw-droppers like the 2011 Lexus LFA and 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.
