Paul McCartney is trying to regain control of the Beatles' publishing rights in the United States, which are currently owned by Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
McCartney has longed for the catalogue since being outbid for it by late superstar Michael Jackson, who purchased ATV Music for $41.5 million in 1985,
reported The Guardian. The news outlet said that U.S. law allows living artists to apply to reclaim the rights 56 years after the music was first published.
That means that the McCartney-John Lennon catalogue starts to become available again in the United States in 2018.
Billboard magazine reported that McCartney filed a termination notice to 32 Beatles songs with the U.S. Copyright Office.
The magazine added that the musician filed termination notices primarily for his songs from 1962-64, but numerous titles were issued later, like "Come Together," "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight," "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window," which are circa 1969 and 1970. Those songs won't be available to McCartney until about 2025.
McCartney and Lennon, who formed Northern Songs publishing company with their manager Brian Epstein and music boss Dick James as majority owners, lost the rights altogether when James sold the company to ATV without their knowledge after Epstein's death in 1967,
wrote BBC News.
There are some limitations for McCartney, however. For example, he can get the termination for only his half of the songs.
"Only the McCartney half of the Lennon/McCartney songs are eligible for termination, and only for the U.S.," a music insider told Billboard. "Sony/ATV still owns (those) Beatles songs in the rest of the world."
Last week,
Sony Corp. announced that the Michael Jackson estate signed a binding memorandum allowing it to buy the estate's 50 percent ownership of Sony/ATV for $750 million.
"This transaction further allows us to continue our efforts of maximizing the value of Michael's estate for the benefit of his children," John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of Jackson's estate, said in the Sony statement. "It also further validates Michael's foresight and genius in investing in music publishing."
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