Don McLean and American Pie

[marko]

He mentioned that most songwriters sold the rights to their songs for quick bucks, but he didn't sell his, he kept the rights and the royalties all came to him.

He said that's why he was rich and most songwriters are poor, after they blow through the money.

A few years ago I had looked into an outfit where you could invest in shares of (or a whole song's) royalties. You were betting that a song would be a long time hit but the artist got paid right away, sort of ahead of the final verdict of the song's value.

IIRC shares ran from about $25K to $250K with some pretty iffy promise of a return if the song never made it.

Note that it is the (often relatively unknown) song writer, not the famous performer who makes most of the money.

 

[Breedlove]

A couple stories of songs and how they produced for the writer . A friend of ours from N Texas wrote a song on the fly after he got beat up in NM . He always says it is a terrible song , not politically correct and only 3 chords . But every month like clockwork he gets checks in the mail for the song ( Redneck Mother ) He has played that song for 40 years .
Radney Foster wrote a song ( Raining on Sunday ), never made him a dime . His wife and him needed to remodel his home in Del Rio , but he didn't have the money . Then he got a call from Keith Urban . He met Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman and got lots of money to remodel his house.

 

[Bamaman]

Had great memories of American Pie, Christmas of 1971. We were staying at a oceanfront home in Delray Beach, FL for a week, and we had a butler bringing us drinks and the family cook preparing incredible meals. At night, we were furnished a car (and a credit card), and we'd head out to surrounding cities on the Intercoastal. And all the while, Don McLean's hit song was playing.

The next week, we went back to our real world--a ratty old fraternity house where we lived on $150 a month plus a $1.85 per hour lifeguarding job at the university.

 

[brucethebroker]

Interesting-thanks for the link.
I have been wondering for quite some time how much money the Who made for their "CSI" into songs. Just found this excerp from Rolling Stone, 2012:

"Over the past 20 years, the Who‘s music has been used to sell sports cars, allergy medicine and three incarnations of CSI. But that was just the beginning. On January 24th, Pete Townshend announced he was selling all of the publishing rights to his vast catalog of songs to the Spirit Music Group – a boutique firm that controls some or all of the rights to songs by acts from the Grateful Dead to Lou Reed – which now plans to place the Who’s music even more aggressively in movies, TV and other media."

OOOPs! Should have listened to Don, Pete!

 

[JoeWras]

Note that it is the (often relatively unknown) song writer, not the famous performer who makes most of the money.

Dolly Parton maked and makes more from "I Will Always Love You" than "9 to 5". Both huge hits, but Whitney's "I Will Always Love You" was a mega-mega hit, and importantly, now continues to get airplay and is on compilations.

 

[RunningBum]

Interesting-thanks for the link.
I have been wondering for quite some time how much money the Who made for their "CSI" into songs. Just found this excerp from Rolling Stone, 2012:

"Over the past 20 years, the Who‘s music has been used to sell sports cars, allergy medicine and three incarnations of CSI. But that was just the beginning. On January 24th, Pete Townshend announced he was selling all of the publishing rights to his vast catalog of songs to the Spirit Music Group – a boutique firm that controls some or all of the rights to songs by acts from the Grateful Dead to Lou Reed – which now plans to place the Who’s music even more aggressively in movies, TV and other media."

OOOPs! Should have listened to Don, Pete!

It's estimated he got about $100M for it, after collecting royalties since the 60s. There's no "oops" here. It's a simple matter of collecting a lump sum over a pension.