More Michael Jackson Mentionings:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027148902036957.html
New Partners for a Music Catalog
The hills are alive with the sound of money.
A music-publishing fund primarily owned by a giant Dutch pension fund has acquired the music-publishing catalog of the iconic songwriting duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, in a deal that highlights the ongoing value of music-publishing assets even in the age of online piracy.
The buyer, Imagem Music Group, didn't disclose the purchase price for the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, but people familiar with the music-publishing business estimated it at as much as $200 million.
Imagem is owned mainly by the Dutch civil-service pension fund Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds, known as ABP, and is managed by CP Masters BV, an independent European music publisher.
20th Century Fox/Everett Collection The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization includes copyrights to musicals including 'The Sound of Music,' above, among others. Richard Rodgers, below at left, and Oscar Hammerstein, circa 1957
Everett Collection
Several of the biggest music publishers, including Warner Music Group Corp.'s Warner/Chappell Music and Sony Corp.'s Sony/ATV Music Publishing, had considered buying the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, according to people familiar with the matter. But most dropped out of the bidding because they considered it overpriced, especially for a catalog of Broadway songs.
Music publishing -- the ownership and exploitation of copyrights on melody and lyrics -- has grown in importance in the digital age. It's a part of the music business that has held its value far better than the sound recordings owned by record labels, because fees from publishing rights can be collected from a broad range of uses, not all of which are vulnerable to piracy. For instance, music publishers collect royalties when songs are played on the radio, in restaurants and bars and when any version of a song (not necessarily the original recording) is used in a movie, television show or commercial.
Michael Jackson bought the rights to much of the Beatles catalog in the 1985 for $47 million. In the decades since, that purchase has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in cash -- partly through the sale of a 50% interest to Sony -- that have partially insulated Mr. Jackson from a variety of financial travails.
Imagem said that the acquisition of the Rodgers & Hammerstein catalog makes it the world's largest independent music publisher, with annualized revenue of more than more than €100 million, or about $126 million, and the rights to more than 200,000 pieces of music. The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization includes copyrights to the music and lyrics to musicals including "Oklahoma," "The King & I" and "South Pacific." It also holds 12,000 songs by 200 other writers including Irving Berlin and Mr. Rodgers's other famous lyricist-collaborator, Lorenz Hart.
Imagem has snapped up a number of major music-publishing assets in recent years. Among them, several big pop catalogs that were spun off in 2007 as concessions to regulators when Universal Music Group bought
Bertelsmann AG's music-publishing unit. Universal is owned by
Vivendi SA. Imagem last year acquired Boosey & Hawkes, the large classical-music publisher, whose catalog includes this year's Pulitzer Prize-winning composition, Steve Reich's "Double Sextet."
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b119748_dancing_hodgepodge_begets_high_scores.html
Shawn Johnson: This 17-year-old is growing up before our eyes. Shawn was popping her hips to perfection in her glittery,
Michael Jackson-inspired cha-cha (
Mark Ballas has a thing for fancy socks this season). Their routine finally captured just the right combination of the Olympian's professional-caliber technique and her burgeoning comfort with showing skin and being sexy. "I loved it!" raved Carrie Ann, while Bruno called Shawn his "cheeky little devil."
Score: 29
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2009/04/dancing-with-the-stars-2.html
Shawn Johnson turned into
Mae West on her cha-cha-cha.
Mark Ballas played
Michael Jackson in a routine set to "TLC." It was fun, fun, fun. The practice segment suggested she might have trouble because she didn't have enough time to learn the routine. Ha! She's a quick study. Tonioli compared Johnson to
Debbie Reynolds. Yes, it was that good. Scores: 28 points -- Tonioli gave them a 10. They deserved three 10's. They were the night's leaders in delivering entertainment.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-now-william-mary-thriller-0420,0,1381054.story
W&M students go for world record 'Thriller' dance
Daily Press 8:38 PM EDT, April 20, 2009 Students, faculty and staff from the
College of William and Mary gathered Sunday in the school's Sunken Garden to break a world record -- by doing the 'Thriller' dance.
Watch the attempt here:
Around 2 p.m., the dancers gathered to learn the movements to the MIchael Jackson song and then perform the dance together, hoping to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. The current record for the largest group performing the dance — first made popular with Jackson's 1983 video — is 147 people, said Suzanne Seurattan, a university spokeswoman.
http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/blog/post/216144
Everybody's doing it: MJ hops on the MJ bandwagon
by: Kenya HuntApril 20, 2009 5:54 PM
comments: (0)
Michael Jackson himself is the latest celeb to wear
MJ-inspired Balmain. And angry commenter,
Jason, points out that
Rihanna was recently spotted looking like MJ's mini-me as well, down to the slicked down baby hair.
A friend just forwarded me this bit from New York magazine's blog,
The Cut, which says that French Vogue's Emmanuelle Alt is Michael's Balmain hook-up. Who knew?
)...a whole lot of things to do and have totally done by July if not sooner - he has about two months to pull it all off.
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