Michael Jackson’s Childhood Songs Returned to Him

In the late 1990s, Michael Jackson’s dream was to obtain the rights to the songs he had performed as a singer in the Jackson 5 during his childhood. At the time, Michael and his brothers were part of a group that recorded songs for Motown. They wanted to write and sing their own songs, so after leaving Motown they were forced to change their name to “The Jacksons.” Motown’s catalog was held by its legendary head, Berry Gordy, and his sister. Despite the fact that Michael—who was like Berry Gordy’s son—had a strong interest in buying Jackson 5 songs, in 1997 the Motown boss sold half of all his broadcasting rights to EMI for $132 million, and the Jackson 5 songs were part of that deal. On Friday, a number of Sony investors—including billionaire David Geffen and the Michael Jackson Foundation—acquired the entire catalog that EMI had bought from Motown by paying $2.2 billion. The Michael Jackson Foundation’s share of the Sony-EMI deal is 38%. After his death, Michael got what he wanted, and now he owns all of his songs. Not long ago, his foundation merged the MJJ catalog—containing all of his solo songs—with the Sony/ATV catalog. With EMI joining Sony/ATV, this giant has become even bigger. Michael now owns half of the rights to the largest music publishing company in the world. Source: eMJey.com / forbes