What is music publishing?
07.06.2025 13:48
The Beatles were already under contract to George Martin's EMI Parlophone label and had begun recording their first songs when they began talking to Dick James about publishing. There was no Northern Songs, Ltd. The first single released by the band, Love Me Do and PS I Love You was published by EMI's Beachwood Music. The second single, Please Please Me and Ask Me Why was published by Dick James Music.
Music publishing is just like that.
Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney divested themselves of all their original, and subsequent, shares in Northern Songs, Ltd., in October 1969; this came after Clive Epstein and Dick James sold their Northern Songs shares to Sir Lew Grade following the death of Clive's brother, Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, on 27 August 1967.
What are some important works of Marcel Proust (novelist)?
Have no fear: it's music publishing; and music publishing, like music itself, is like a box of chocolates: it goes stale and it changes color when it does. Make of that what you will.
Pretty sure I straight-up lost IQ points looking into music publishing, too. I know I'm way dumber now than I was before I started. Yeah. And, I used to wear a size 7⅝; now, my hat size 7¼, so, yeah.
And, so, that status went with John and Paul when they entered into the boardrooms and offices of the men and women who bought and sold music (and the musicians who made that music) and the barristers, lawyers, and solicitors who represented them and did their dirty work: the awareness by John and Paul of how “business” dealings would be perceived the anti-business youth of the 1960s (who were also a large percentage of The Beatles’ fans).
BOJ braces for higher interest rates with provisions boost - Nikkei Asia
It could have been both of them. John Lennon had fans all across the spectrum . . . only if the spectrum was not inclusive of those professionals who worked on the business side of music. John was known to be acerbic with those he loved and respected; I cannot begin to imagine how he might be with someone he disliked or had no respect for.
They tried to buy a controling interest in their company from Clive, NEMS (North End Music Stores, an existing Epstein-family company Brian used for his management of The Beatles and other Mersey Beat music acts), and James, but, the “working” relationship of The Beatles primary music composers with those business professionals in the music industry was, at very best, non-existent; at worst—which is the level to which their everyday, regular relationship with those men sank—it was, how shall I put this? It was, uh, strained.
The justice system microcosm.
Then, you remember: If that rat-fuck half-dog is playing possum, (half-possum?) he'll be up and jaw-locked on my crotch so fast, I'll already be screaming in falsetto before I even feel the pain.
You see it, so you slowly approach. And, as you slowly approach, you feel suddenly giddy: giddy that fate—and the cheap glue used by those 11-year-old Chinese girls who assembled your Nikes in a Tianjin sweatshop (named in honor of Michael Jordan)—forced you to wear your Doc Marten skull-stomping boots today.
Artists sell publishing all the time and regret it all too often. It happened time and again in the 1950s and 1960s. All the time. There is no good fairy protecting musical artists. Grand Funk Railroad lost all their early publishing rights (you know, for the good songs they wrote, like American Band) to their crooked manager in the 1970s. There came in the night no music composing elves to cobble together some more hits for that band.
Can I fix a fridge leak myself, or should I call a pro?
I became curious about The Beatles publishing, you know, for John Lennon and Paul McCartney compositions, years ago and looked into it. Many times.
Brian could have, easily, handled the mess created when Brian died.
And, that suited John and Paul very well, as they now sought control over Northern Songs, Ltd., and the concomitant publishing control majority ownership in Northern Songs would bring over the songs in the Northern Songs catalogue.
If white people had been slaves, would WLM be a thing right now?
Many times I looked into it. And, the more I learned about music publishing, and the more I came to understand the function and purpose of John Lennon's and Paul McCartney's music publishing company, Northern Songs, Ltd., the less I knew about music publishing, and the less I understood the function or the purpose of Northern Songs, Ltd.
Heard a happy music publishing story yet? No?
There are UN treaties ŵhich cover the music industry. And every country on the Earth probably has its own laws which dictate how musicians are to be cheated and how they are to be robbed by those who run the music business, when those artists are being robbed or cheated within the jurisdiction of thst country, or when operating under the laws of that country.
John and Paul washed their hands of all their Beatles publishing, quiting efforts to gain future control of it and selling all the shares of Northern Songs, Ltd., they had accumulated in the past. All of it. At that time. Except for four songs.
Music publishing is a rabid dog, man.
But, Brian did die. And John Lennon and Paul McCartney were not businessmen. Even worse, through the years, John often seemed to act—in those business settings he was reluctantly part of—he acted like antagonizing and alienating businessmen was John Lennon's business. Clive Epstein, especially, disliked having to deal with John Lennon.
Northern Songs, Ltd., was dissolved in 1995.
After John ridded himself of all his Beatles publishing, Yoko sold it again some time ago.
As long as the speed and the cash hold out.
What is your secret to glowing skin?
As their manager, Brian had not always been right in his decision making, not at all; but, he seemed to always have the best interests of his clients, the men he represented, in mind whenever he made deals or arrangements in their behalf. Brian was trusted by those four men like he was one of them. And, really, he was one of them. The first, fifth Beatle.
A rabid half-dog. Half-dog, half-possum: addicted to mainlining smack and marathon on-line shopping sprees, (ordering stereo receivers, speakers, and used IPhone accessories) going for days on end, as long as it takes: as long as it takes.
Is there even a Korean Bar-B-Q in Detroit?
Whole-body movement play shows promise for children with autism - PsyPost
I would not be surprised to discover music publishing is thought of in the same, shitty way by those who are schooled with the specific intention of entering into that profession: if loan-sharking, prostitution, strong-arm robbery, and fraud can be called a profession. But, perhaps it is a shirt collar and tie that make a profession. Very well, then. But, I cannot imagine the confidence men, pimps, whores, and check-kiters will be too pleased to find that, all at once, a new dress code has been imposed upon their domain and a new class of outlaw has been admitted to their ranks, one not hampered by outdated notions about honor or rights or integrity. One who probably sees not the importance of hygiene, either. Or, smells it not. As the case may be.
The love of music has no boundaries and it crosses all borders. Same with the music business. And deadly viruses.
Make no mistake about it: there were then no laws to protect songwriters from being robbed of their publishing rights and the money that those publishing rights bring in, and there are probably no laws doing that now. None. Zero.
Can you share a story of someone who had a lucky experience while hitchhiking?
Look at Mick and Keith, the Glimmer Twins: Allen Klein promised the Rolling Stones millions of pounds in advance money, which Klein then delivered: to himself. In the subsequent legal proceedings—to illustrate how very much the laws do not protect the artists—Mick and Keith lost their publishing rights to Klein. I hope that taught them a lesson. Next time someone rips off the Stones, the cops could show up, be in fear for their lives, and shoot Mick and Keith to death.
Or . . . or, maybe it's not. I don't know. All that was going somewhere else, way somewhere else when I started writing it. I mean . . .
Paul's and, especially, John's positions at the very top of the upper echelons of the counterculture hierarchy—nevermind that ranks as such as those are symbolic and, obviously, honorary—that status was ever-present in their lives: in their music lives; at home and on vacation in their private lives; and in the business lives that they started living right after Brian stopped.
Walking This Many Steps Per Day Can Cut Your Risk Of Early Death - HuffPost
That is no fault of Detroit's, though. Motown. My town. I love Detroit.
And, just when you think it's finished, all the damage that music publishing can possibly do, has been done—music publishing has already stolen your car, your identity, and all of your cool, vintage concert tee-shirts from the 1980s; it's fucked your wife and it's fucked your daughter and it's fucked your son; and, not only does music publishing still owe you $600 from that night at the casino, (music publishing always owes everybody money) music publishing still hasn't paid its rent from September or October, (music publishing never pays anybody) and it still owes for its share of the electric bill—just exactly then, you see it, lying there, in the greasy mud behind some Korean Bar-B-Q in Detroit's Cass corridor—just more dog parts (half-dog parts) mixed in with the dog parts that are the remains of that evening's bussed entrées—a rig of junk, half-shot, hanging out of his favorite shooting-vein, lying next to an empty bottle of Old Granddad, you see it: music publishing.
But, I don't love music publishing.
And, if they had never known it before—or, if they knew and Brian's success as manager made them forget and take him for granted—they knew it now.
That could have been Dick James who especially hated having to deal with John.
Music publishing is a fecal mess to figure out for casually curious music listeners. And why any would try to understand it, I do not know. Sexually, there are those who derive pleasure only through the infliction of pain. It is just so, then. It must be.
I don't even know if the Cass corridor is still there. I hope they razed it when they found out that's where the Oakland County Child Killer (actually, killers) took his little victims to be raped and murdered back in the 1970s. Killing is just too good for some monsters. And immortality—properly administered—can be worse than a sentence of death.
And, though it goes without saying, I'll say it anyway: knowledge that the influencers of the counterculture were watching affected their decision-making; they could not let themselves be seen as “selling out” or “getting in bed” with “squares” or “the man.”
It is the most mean and pedestrian of ironies that the band needed Brian more after his death than at any time since the very beginnings of their managerial relationship with him. Because he died. The Beatles’ losing their manager made their having a manager of the upmost importance.
I have heard Richard sued, at some point, over his publishing rights and, in so doing, came to possess some of his publishing. Not sure how much he got or how he came to win, but, I heard this. I hope he did.
Just look at guys like Little Richard: I do not know that he ever got any money for his songs that he wrote. Ever. You can look it up. All the songs he wrote, classics of rock & roll, the musical foundation that all rock built on after. Little Richard even looked and dreased like Prince in the 1980s in the 1950s.
Brian Epstein was the business side of the phenomenon that was The Beatles. And, Brian's brother, Clive, and Dick James, The Beatles publisher, (who was either so fucking great at his job of publicizing the Beatles new releases that he made himself and his position with the band obsolete by the time The Beatles 6th single, Can't Buy Me Love, was released in 1964, or, he really was John Lennon's Luckiest Man in the World) were business associates of The Beatles: they disliked Lennon and came to hate that the business of The Beatles, since Brian died, required that they meet with him. They wanted out.
In the United States—because of the international nature of music, you know, no boundaries (but mostly because of laws concerning music in that country)—Paul will, soon—maybe now—have some control over many, maybe most, of those Beatle songs for the first time. (Brian, John, and Paul together, I don't believe, could overrule Dick James in Northern Songs, Ltd. James was given 50% of the publishing company in the original contract which established it: a standard practice, typical of all such contracts in the UK at the time.)
John and Paul were—to my knowledge—represented in the talks concerning the disposition of their publishing company only by themselves. So, it is unsurprising that, in those meetings, they were unable to even approach a resolution which involved the men who, for all intents and purposes, were Northern Songs Ltd., remaining a part of Northern Songs, Ltd.
The music industry is international. And my understanding of its business is not helped by this.
Because, who could the band trust?
After ridding himself of all of his Beatles publishing, Paul has already started to get some of it back.
Penny Lane was removed from the Northern Songs catalogue in 1985.