Quote:
Originally Posted by B.J. Always
I don't understand a lot about this. Why did Richie sell his rights while Jon didn't?
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About the real reason can only be speculated.
Before he sold his rights, everytime one of his songs got played on the radio, during a sports event, in a bar, in a movie etc. he got a certain amount of money (and every other co-writer, too).
Now, since he sold his rights to a company, this company gets all his royalties. For the other co-writers nothing has changed, they get their royalties the same way and in the same amount like before.
The advantage for Richie in the first place: He got a lot of money on short-term.
I guess the real figures aren't public, but it is safe to say that it would have taken tens of years to get the same amount via royalties.
At some point there will be the break-even point, when the company has earned more money with the royalties than they have paid for. That's what makes it interesting for them.
I guess Richie just saw the opportunity to make a lot of money in short-term which he can pass on to Ava when someday his time on earth is over. It is a little bit like having stocks. As long as you hold them, you do have the value, but unless you sell them you can't use it for anything.
I'm sure he did the math about the break-even point and came to the conclusion that the deal is absolutely fine.
Why didn't Jon sell his rights as well? Once again one can only guess. Maybe he didn't had an offer like Richie (doubtful), maybe he wasn't satisfied with the amount of money he was offered (quite possible), maybe he just wants to hold on to his rights so that he can still decide about the usage of his songs...
Both ways have their pros and their cons.