John Legend just sold his entire music catalog for those Ms.

[Cowboyz89]

Once again we got posters questioning decisions from artist who’s been in the game for decades and know exactly how much they’re bringing in every year from their catalog.

First thing I thought before I even clicked the thread.
This forum will always be hilarious.

 

[JLova]

He is young and a very dumb move, his family would see royalties well into the second half of the 21st century but sold it all for short-term gain.

Now we are going to hear John Legend songs in Burger Commercials smh

Probably needs the money.

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

He sold his catalog because he was broke, which he will probably end up again



Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis entire catalogs sold for $30 million. Why on earth would John Legend be worth 150% more?

I’m sure he made a sound decision based on his finances. However, we as black folks need to wonder why we’re always so eager to give away ownership and why others are always so willing to take it.

Money doesn’t equal power. I can have $0 but if I own land in the middle of an area Amazon wants to build a warehouse, I’m in a position to get some things done for myself and others.

Well bob dylan and bruce springsteen sold for $400 million+. David bowie sold for $250mm. Taylor swift $300mm. Neil young did half for $150mm.

and these numbers are typically based on a multiple of current and projected royalties and im sure that number is healthy for an artist with modern hits and wedding classics.

The imaginary number i said is irrelevent to my point too.

 

[NinoBrown]

nikkas in here talmbout generational wealth, like how the fukk is 100 million plus not generational wealth and they're still gonna be working on top of that

Taxes take a good chunk of that and if the next Oscar Winning film places an acoustic version of All of Me in the feature he or his family won't see one dime from that cue.

His royalties were also probably part of the deal too, so no revenue for streams from iTunes/Spotify/Tidal.

Yes a 75 mill isn't a lot considering the value of his catalog which will be worth double or more should he live another 40 years...


The reason why these companies are just buying out catalogues are placement opportunities. I work in the music world as a composer and the truth is simply music publishers/libraries want to cut out the artist and gain ownership of their works to put them into a sync library for broadcast/film rights.

The flow of the music licensing world is:
Film (Disney/Universal)
TV (Cable)
Radio (XM/Sirus/FM/AM)
Internet (Netflix)
Streaming Services (iTunes)

Film is the holy grail, you can get 50k for a film placement depending on the license, maybe more. Those are lightning strikes but John should be getting those pretty often as an A-lister.

John is already getting millions probably from his other streams.

But these companies figure they can just buy John out to pocket all of those streams themselves and pay him nothing since he got the points up front. If you listen to the radio or watch TV, you notice a lot of 90s artists songs are popping up in random ads, reason is the producers of those songs sold the rights to a library for pennies on the dollar and lost broadcast revenue (which would be around 50-100k) along with royalties and streaming revenue.

With his music essentially being free to use without legal red tape, music supervisors and curators can use his voice and music without his permission in projects or media he may not approve of since he gave up those rights.

Money is important but legacy is too for Black music and the fact some sniveling Hebrew or greasy Italian or Arab with no soul will be managing John Legend's catalogue should be disturbing.

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

To be clear i made up the $75mm number as part of my story

 

[L. Deezy]

He is young and a very dumb move, his family would see royalties well into the second half of the 21st century but sold it all for short-term gain.

Now we are going to hear John Legend songs in Burger Commercials smh

Its not dumb.. he sold his old music.. has nothing to do with his music going forward


and this man knows what his royalties are at this point. Not yall.

If he feels like cashing out is better than waiting for quarterly payments for year after year, he should.

 

[NinoBrown]

Its not dumb.. he sold his old music.. has nothing to do with his music going forward


and this man knows what his royalties are at this point. Not yall.

If he feels like cashing out is better than waiting for quarterly payments for year after year, he should.

John Legend isn't old and decrepit, obviously his call but short-term gain for an asset that will accrue into the 22nd century is short-sighted....

Maybe he is broke?

 

[L. Deezy]

John Legend isn't old and decrepit, obviously his call but short-term gain for an asset that will accrue into the 22nd century is short-sighted....

Maybe he is broke?

Yall dont even stream or buy his music NOW.. how yall gonna say what his future music gonna be worth? This is unreal to me..

 

[razassin]

Taxes take a good chunk of that and if the next Oscar Winning film places an acoustic version of All of Me in the feature he or his family won't see one dime from that cue.

His royalties were also probably part of the deal too, so no revenue for streams from iTunes/Spotify/Tidal.

Yes a 75 mill isn't a lot considering the value of his catalog which will be worth double or more should he live another 40 years...


The reason why these companies are just buying out catalogues are placement opportunities. I work in the music world as a composer and the truth is simply music publishers/libraries want to cut out the artist and gain ownership of their works to put them into a sync library for broadcast/film rights.

The flow of the music licensing world is:
Film (Disney/Universal)
TV (Cable)
Radio (XM/Sirus/FM/AM)
Internet (Netflix)
Streaming Services (iTunes)

Film is the holy grail, you can get 50k for a film placement depending on the license, maybe more. Those are lightning strikes but John should be getting those pretty often as an A-lister.

John is already getting millions probably from his other streams.

But these companies figure they can just buy John out to pocket all of those streams themselves and pay him nothing since he got the points up front. If you listen to the radio or watch TV, you notice a lot of 90s artists songs are popping up in random ads, reason is the producers of those songs sold the rights to a library for pennies on the dollar and lost broadcast revenue (which would be around 50-100k) along with royalties and streaming revenue.

With his music essentially being free to use without legal red tape, music supervisors and curators can use his voice and music without his permission in projects or media he may not approve of since he gave up those rights.

Money is important but legacy is too for Black music and the fact some sniveling Hebrew or greasy Italian or Arab with no soul will be managing John Legend's catalogue should be disturbing.

Good lookn out breh

Now I kinda know why these movies/netflix joints be playin over n over the same songs

 

[mobbinfms]

This is the only case I don’t support because at his current trajectory as a safe likable artist who can make Christmas albums and host awards shows for decades…there’s still potential to build on your catalog while getting free promo. He also has young children and he himself is young. It’s not like an older artist simplifying a complex royalty situation for his grown children.

You never know which old John Legend song is gonna gain more popularity in a movie, ad, etc.

Unless he’s barred from performing songs from the catalog he just sold, he will still benefit (albeit not nearly as much) in the event one of his older songs suddenly becomes extremely popular.

It ultimately comes down to the possibility of the value of the catalog increasing dramatically vs whether he got a good deal for the present value of the catalog. We can’t know that until we know the specifics of the deal.

 

[mobbinfms]

Maybe he just wants out the game, he can always make new music if he’s dedicated. We don’t know his streaming numbers and private financial situation

He has nearly 32 million monthly Spotify listeners. Considerably more than I was expecting.

 

[Floyd Pinkerton]

Y'all acting like if you took $10 million and dropped it into an S&P 500 index fund that you couldn't create generational wealth that way.

shyt, you could live a modest lifestyle by borrowing against some portion of the unrealized gains and STILL make a shytload of money. The Coli needs to step up its financial literacy game.

The Rule of 72, brethren. Wealth begets wealth.

 

[FaTaL]

He has nearly 32 million monthly Spotify listeners. Considerably more than I was expecting.

How much that actually bring in?

 

[mobbinfms]

Money doesn’t equal power.

 

[NinoBrown]

Yall dont even stream or buy his music NOW.. how yall gonna say what his future music gonna be worth? This is unreal to me..

He gets millions of streams a month, it is just a low payout since the streaming industry has been fighting Congress to avoid paying radio royalty pay rates for Internet streams. What streams pay are the lowest allowable by law. He still gets support but let's be real, Get Lifted was his only great work. His body of work has been lukewarm tbh. But the Pop/Elevator music world loves him

Good lookn out breh

Now I kinda know why these movies/netflix joints be playin over n over the same songs

Yup. Licensing costs are the reason why we hear the same themes over and over again, it's expensive to get unvetted pieces put into broadcast level due to the legal problems that can occur with an uncleared sample.

Here is a bonus, listen to music with scenes that have classical music and don't match the tone of the scene or show, that means the music runners in that scene ran out of budget and time and had to use songs no longer in copyright, known as public domain..Your Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven pieces fall into this category.