A fantastic article, from the highly respected journal 'Music Week', on the history created by MJ's music after his untimely death;
2009: History maker
9 January 2010
The last year of the Noughties was dominated by the death of one of music’s greatest ever stars in Michael Jackson. Music Week analyses the fallout
The sudden death of Michael Jackson in June dominated like no other event in 2009.
The King of Pop was on the cusp of what should have been a glorious comeback with a record-breaking sold-out 50-date residency at The O2 Arena in London, new music and an eager public who were willing to pay almost anything, it seems, to buy into Jackson’s This Is It extravaganza.
Then on June 25, less than three weeks before opening night at The O2, news broke that Jackson had died, sending the entertainment industry into a period of mourning and challenging promoter AEG Live into uncharted waters – how to refund nearly 800,000 ticket buyers around the world.
What had been a concert coup of colossal magnitude – Jackson had not performed a full-length gig for 12 years – suddenly turned into a tragedy of equal proportions, with the eyes of the world focusing on the minutiae of anything remotely associated with a man who was one of music’s biggest ever stars.
As AEG maintained a dignified silence, working privately to ensure the wishes of the Jackson family were satisfied, headlines around the world speculated on the financial hole the venue owner and promoter found itself in due to the heavy investment committed to the This Is It production.
Figures ranging as high as US$300m (£185m) were bandied around as potential lost earnings for AEG and, while the true extent of those revenues will never be known, the promoter’s revelation that thousands of overseas fans had bought tickets for the shows only hint at the potential lost earning for London as a result of the cancelled residency.
But the loss of one of music’s most iconic stars reignited interest in Michael Jackson’s work around the world and, in the wake of his death, sales of his music and merchandise have been higher than at any time since his heyday of the mid-Eighties and his record-breaking album Thriller.
A star-studded memorial for Jackson was broadcast live around the world and once the initial hysteria over his death had passed, AEG agreed some significant deals with the entertainer’s estate to establish revenue streams that will ensure his legacy in the years to come.
The live industry as a whole learned lessons from the tragedy, but won plaudits for the way it dealt with refunds to fans.
Close to 100,000 people opted to take up AEG’s offer of receiving their tickets for the concerts, while the majority who did want refunds were reimbursed quickly and efficiently by the likes of Ticketmaster which literally had to turn the truck carrying tickets around when they heard of Jackson’s death.
The exercise was not so straightforward for those who had purchased tickets using secondary ticketing websites. However, that sector also dealt with the crisis well, passing a crucial credibility test with many sceptics who questioned whether operators could live up to claims that their services did indeed safeguard consumers’ money.
Meanwhile, sales staff at The O2 arena set about the tricky task of trying to find replacement events for some of the nights left vacant at the arena because of the cancelled shows. Although barely a handful of the 2009 dates were filled, arena bosses were able to predict another record-breaking year for the venue.
Shaken by events, AEG nevertheless stated that it would continue to look for artists capable of filling arenas for multiple show residencies, despite the obvious increased financial risks such events involve. Rival promoters may not be as keen to follow that model but the fact that costs tumble compared to traditional touring is interesting other major venue owners.
Indeed, rather than losing out on the deal to attract Michael Jackson back to live performance, it is likely that AEG will benefit year after year on that decision despite the singer’s untimely death.
In addition to the video footage AEG shot of Jackson’s rehearsals for This Is It, the company says it has enough audio material to release a number of albums, plus it is already benefiting from the merchandise rights it awarded to Universal Music-owned Bravado in the days before Michael died.
Sales of Jackson merchandise since June amount to millions of transactions around the world, while interest in his catalogue has generated many more millions of pounds, dollars, euros and yen for publishers and record companies alike.
Posthumous set This Is It became Jackson’s sixth number one album in the US, selling 373,000 units in its first week of release and to date that figure tops 2m, while overall American sales in 2009 for Michael Jackson catalogue are an incredible 7m albums and 10.2m downloads of individual tracks.
In the UK, more than 2m Jackson albums have been sold since his death, compared to just 161,000 sales from January to June, mostly on the back of the announcement of his O2 arena shows.
That tally means Jackson is the biggest-selling artist in Britain this year by a country mile.
Intriguingly, in an age when some observers argue that the LP format is dead because people simply cherry-pick their favourite tracks for download, corresponding single-track sales for Jackson are fewer than the album tally. However, they still total more than 1.4m individual tracks since his death, providing Sony Music with a significant sales boost during the year.
Downloads in particular meant that for a number of weeks Jackson songs dominated the UK singles charts, while in the US the unprecedented demand for his catalogue led Billboard to change its chart rules – albeit too late to recognise the huge number of Jackson sales in the Billboard 200.
Although Jackson owned half of the Sony/ATV publishing business, his own music is administered by Warner/Chappell and the level of physical and download sales, coupled with the massive airplay that his songs have had on TV and radio, handed the music publisher a tremendous boost in market share during the third quarter of 2009, as tribute buyers helped provide the publisher with its highest market share (24.6%) in six years.
And then there was the film. AEG agreed a $60m (£37m) deal with Sony Pictures to release This Is It using footage of the rehearsals in Los Angeles interspersed with interviews with some of the people close to the star.
As with most things associated with Michael Jackson, the movie made motion-picture history as the highest-earning concert film of all time. To date the movie has grossed more than $250m (£153m) worldwide and many observers believe that the DVD release could also break records, wiping reported debts from the singer’s estate and helping to establish a trust for his children similar to the highly-lucrative Elvis Presley legacy.
Money and business aside, the death of Jackson at the age of just 50 ended an extraordinary life dominated by mystery, intrigue and headlines – both good and bad – whatever he did. The term “genius” is used all-too-frequently in the music business and is seldom warranted, but in Michael Jackson the industry had a true genius and only with his passing are many people coming to understand what the world of entertainment has lost.
http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=2&storycode=1039532&c=2
2009: History maker
9 January 2010
The last year of the Noughties was dominated by the death of one of music’s greatest ever stars in Michael Jackson. Music Week analyses the fallout
The sudden death of Michael Jackson in June dominated like no other event in 2009.
The King of Pop was on the cusp of what should have been a glorious comeback with a record-breaking sold-out 50-date residency at The O2 Arena in London, new music and an eager public who were willing to pay almost anything, it seems, to buy into Jackson’s This Is It extravaganza.
Then on June 25, less than three weeks before opening night at The O2, news broke that Jackson had died, sending the entertainment industry into a period of mourning and challenging promoter AEG Live into uncharted waters – how to refund nearly 800,000 ticket buyers around the world.
What had been a concert coup of colossal magnitude – Jackson had not performed a full-length gig for 12 years – suddenly turned into a tragedy of equal proportions, with the eyes of the world focusing on the minutiae of anything remotely associated with a man who was one of music’s biggest ever stars.
As AEG maintained a dignified silence, working privately to ensure the wishes of the Jackson family were satisfied, headlines around the world speculated on the financial hole the venue owner and promoter found itself in due to the heavy investment committed to the This Is It production.
Figures ranging as high as US$300m (£185m) were bandied around as potential lost earnings for AEG and, while the true extent of those revenues will never be known, the promoter’s revelation that thousands of overseas fans had bought tickets for the shows only hint at the potential lost earning for London as a result of the cancelled residency.
But the loss of one of music’s most iconic stars reignited interest in Michael Jackson’s work around the world and, in the wake of his death, sales of his music and merchandise have been higher than at any time since his heyday of the mid-Eighties and his record-breaking album Thriller.
A star-studded memorial for Jackson was broadcast live around the world and once the initial hysteria over his death had passed, AEG agreed some significant deals with the entertainer’s estate to establish revenue streams that will ensure his legacy in the years to come.
The live industry as a whole learned lessons from the tragedy, but won plaudits for the way it dealt with refunds to fans.
Close to 100,000 people opted to take up AEG’s offer of receiving their tickets for the concerts, while the majority who did want refunds were reimbursed quickly and efficiently by the likes of Ticketmaster which literally had to turn the truck carrying tickets around when they heard of Jackson’s death.
The exercise was not so straightforward for those who had purchased tickets using secondary ticketing websites. However, that sector also dealt with the crisis well, passing a crucial credibility test with many sceptics who questioned whether operators could live up to claims that their services did indeed safeguard consumers’ money.
Meanwhile, sales staff at The O2 arena set about the tricky task of trying to find replacement events for some of the nights left vacant at the arena because of the cancelled shows. Although barely a handful of the 2009 dates were filled, arena bosses were able to predict another record-breaking year for the venue.
Shaken by events, AEG nevertheless stated that it would continue to look for artists capable of filling arenas for multiple show residencies, despite the obvious increased financial risks such events involve. Rival promoters may not be as keen to follow that model but the fact that costs tumble compared to traditional touring is interesting other major venue owners.
Indeed, rather than losing out on the deal to attract Michael Jackson back to live performance, it is likely that AEG will benefit year after year on that decision despite the singer’s untimely death.
In addition to the video footage AEG shot of Jackson’s rehearsals for This Is It, the company says it has enough audio material to release a number of albums, plus it is already benefiting from the merchandise rights it awarded to Universal Music-owned Bravado in the days before Michael died.
Sales of Jackson merchandise since June amount to millions of transactions around the world, while interest in his catalogue has generated many more millions of pounds, dollars, euros and yen for publishers and record companies alike.
Posthumous set This Is It became Jackson’s sixth number one album in the US, selling 373,000 units in its first week of release and to date that figure tops 2m, while overall American sales in 2009 for Michael Jackson catalogue are an incredible 7m albums and 10.2m downloads of individual tracks.
In the UK, more than 2m Jackson albums have been sold since his death, compared to just 161,000 sales from January to June, mostly on the back of the announcement of his O2 arena shows.
That tally means Jackson is the biggest-selling artist in Britain this year by a country mile.
Intriguingly, in an age when some observers argue that the LP format is dead because people simply cherry-pick their favourite tracks for download, corresponding single-track sales for Jackson are fewer than the album tally. However, they still total more than 1.4m individual tracks since his death, providing Sony Music with a significant sales boost during the year.
Downloads in particular meant that for a number of weeks Jackson songs dominated the UK singles charts, while in the US the unprecedented demand for his catalogue led Billboard to change its chart rules – albeit too late to recognise the huge number of Jackson sales in the Billboard 200.
Although Jackson owned half of the Sony/ATV publishing business, his own music is administered by Warner/Chappell and the level of physical and download sales, coupled with the massive airplay that his songs have had on TV and radio, handed the music publisher a tremendous boost in market share during the third quarter of 2009, as tribute buyers helped provide the publisher with its highest market share (24.6%) in six years.
And then there was the film. AEG agreed a $60m (£37m) deal with Sony Pictures to release This Is It using footage of the rehearsals in Los Angeles interspersed with interviews with some of the people close to the star.
As with most things associated with Michael Jackson, the movie made motion-picture history as the highest-earning concert film of all time. To date the movie has grossed more than $250m (£153m) worldwide and many observers believe that the DVD release could also break records, wiping reported debts from the singer’s estate and helping to establish a trust for his children similar to the highly-lucrative Elvis Presley legacy.
Money and business aside, the death of Jackson at the age of just 50 ended an extraordinary life dominated by mystery, intrigue and headlines – both good and bad – whatever he did. The term “genius” is used all-too-frequently in the music business and is seldom warranted, but in Michael Jackson the industry had a true genius and only with his passing are many people coming to understand what the world of entertainment has lost.
http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=2&storycode=1039532&c=2
