Thorn in deal on Jackson songs: Catalogue includes most Beatles titles

THORN EMI has entered into a five-year agreement with a music publishing company owned by Michael Jackson, the embattled pop star currently in seclusion.

The deal, with ATV Music Publishing, will mean that EMI will help to market an extensive song catalogue that includes most of the Beatles tunes written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

The agreement will start next January. In common with other music publishing companies, ATV owns copyright to songs and earns royalties by licensing them for use in films and advertisements, as well as for public performance or radio play.

After his acquisition of the Beatles catalogue in the 1980s Michael Jackson came in for strong criticism from Paul McCartney, who did not want to see Beatles songs used in advertisements.

Under the agreement, EMI will advance dollars 30m to ATV Music next year and another dollars 40m over the following four years. EMI will then be able to earn revenues by exploiting the ATV catalogue, which also includes songs by Little Richard, Elvis Presley and UB40 in its collection of more than 4,000 song titles.

(Photograph omitted)