Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Joysey
...(N)ow, thanks to Jon himself, we know he had a really bad record deal since the label owns his masters and half the publishing rights. That's the basic/standard deal that a new unknown band sign because they have no better choice, they can't afford negociating. But as soon as you make it big, the first thing you (should) do is renecociate the deal and demand to own your masters...
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Prior to the ascendancy of MTV, it was standard procedure for labels to let non-Top 40 acts to keep their publishing (and in most cases, their masters) because they weren't seen as having any resale value. I've read where Jon actually said that he and Richie owned all their publishing at the time, at least -- and here's why I think that's true:
When the New Jersey Department of Tourism wanted to use
Who Says You Can't Go Home in their commercials, the record label said, "Sure! The fee is $175K USD!" Since that money would have come directly from New Jersey taxpayers, I strongly suspect that Jon and Richie told the label that if they didn't donate the song for free, THEY would pay the fee -- for which the label would HAVE to reimburse them. Which would explain why
Who Says You Can't Go Home was used in New Jersey Department of Tourism commercials!
I also remember a subsidiary of Sony Records offering some kind of solo deal to Richie. I said, "Careful! Sony gave Michael Jackson everything he wanted, and all he had to do was put up his publishing rights -- which included
THE BEATLES' publishing rights -- as collateral!"