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Julian Lennon Sells Beatles Stake
Hey, Jude, take your dad's songs and make yourself richer.
Julian Lennon, John Lennon's eldest son, has decided to sell an economic stake in the compositions cowritten by his late father for the Beatles to Primary Wave Music Publishing.
Terms of the deal, announced Friday, were kept under wraps; however, the 44-year-old Lennon, a singer-songwriter like his dad , said that the sale was meant to bolster his music career.
"Partnering with Primary Wave provides me with a great team of supportive music professionals whose experience I can tap into as I continue to produce and record music," Julian said in a statement. "I felt it was the appropriate time to take on a partner for both my interest in my father’s legendary music and for my future music endeavors."
According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal, Primary Wave also has agreed to help Julian market his upcoming album. The still-untitled set will be the musician's first since 1999's Photograph Smile. He's best known for his platinum-selling 1984 debut album, Valotte.
The only child of John and first wife Cynthia (and the inspiration of the Beatles classic "Hey, Jude"), Julian inherited a share of his father's Beatles compositions when the music icon was murdered in 1980; John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and their son, Sean, received the rest.
Primary Wave will get control of a portion of what's generally referred to as the songwriter's share of royalties generated from the Beatles catalog. John Lennon teamed with Paul McCartney on nearly all the band's classic tracks, ranging from "She Loves You," "Please Please Me" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to "All You Need Is Love," "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Come Together."
A joint press release from Julian Lennon and Primary Wave describes the financial interest as "significant."
The agreement does not affect McCartney's songwriting stake. Nor does it affect the overall ownership of the Lennon-McCartney publishing rights—that is, how their compositions and recordings are sold or licensed. Those rights still reside with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which pop star Michael Jackson owns a partial stake in.
But Primary Wave Chairman and CEO Larry Mestel indicated the sale gives his company a passive revenue source via income collected in John Lennon's name. Last year, the late Beatle's total earnings topped $24 million, per Forbes.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with Julian Lennon and to own a piece of music history," said Mestel. "John Lennon’s Beatles songs were simply some of the greatest songs ever written and will continue to inspire future generations of music fans."
The upstart Primary Wave has made a big splash in the music biz in its year of existence.
In March 2006, the firm made headlines for paying Courtney Love $50 million to acquire a 50 percent interest in the music-publishing rights of late husband Kurt Cobain's Nirvana songs. Primary Wave subsequently licensed a number of the grunge band's songs for use in videogames and other commercial outlets.
Among the other artists on the company's burgeoning roster are Daryl Hall and John Oates, Bombay Dub Orchestra and Daniel Johnston. Primary Wave also owns the publishing rights to certain works by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, Elmer Bernstein and Quincy Jones.
Primary Wave's acquisition of Lennon's stake comes a day after the Beatles' company, Apple Corps, announced that it had reached an undisclosed settlement in a lawsuit against EMI Group, which accused the record giant of shortchanging the Fab Four out of $59 million in royalties.
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