list Artists who own their master recordings

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by houston, Oct 10, 2006.

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  1. Zoot Marimba

    Zoot Marimba And I’m The Critic Of The Group

    Location:
    Savannah, Georgia
    Don't the Eagles own their masters?
     
  2. FredV

    FredV Senior Member

    I believe George Harrison, and his estate, own his publishing. He formed Harrisongs which was a separate entity from Northern Songs which owned the bulk of the Lennon-McCartney songs, so his publishing wasn't touched when Dick James sold Northern Songs.
     
  3. videoman

    videoman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lake Tahoe, NV
    From "Music of My Mind" on, I believe
     
  4. Jason Pumphrey

    Jason Pumphrey Forum Resident

    Queen perhaps?
     
  5. notgoblin

    notgoblin Habitual Linestepper - not dancer

    FAT FREDDYS DROP
     
  6. ash1

    ash1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    bristol uk

    The Dave Clark owns the masters. There is no "Five". Just him. No-one else was involved. He called himself Five to be bigger than the Fab Four.
     
  7. noahjld

    noahjld Der Wixxer

    I stand corrected.
     
  8. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I doubt the Harrison estate owns the Apple-era recordings. He did not in the 70s, and in later years he didn't really have any leverage to negotiate to acquire them. None of those records has ever been released on a non-Capitol label.
     
  9. Maranatha5585

    Maranatha5585 BELLA + RIP In Memoriam

    Location:
    Down South
    Robert Fripp has spoken out for several years on this.
    EG Records and the... "endless years of grief".
    Fripp may possibly be the most spoken out, and open of the years of corporate corrupt robbery.
    Seems to have gone on for several decades, and kept us abreast of most of it, with duty like honesty and integrity.
     
    drasil likes this.
  10. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    For the most part, no. Changes in US Copyright law allow an artist to petition to reclaim ownership of post-1978 recordings after a 35-year period, if they can prove it was contractually not "work for hire." I've found some articles from a few years ago (here and here) discussing Henley's efforts to reclaim ownership of The Long Run and Eagles Live, but I can't find any recent articles so I don't know if he was successful or not, or how the situation was resolved. But the bulk of their catalog is obviously pre-1978, and therefore not governed by federal copyright law, so the tapes are still owned by the label.
     
  11. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Don Henley does own his solo Warner Bros. and Asylum Records masters though.
     
    mtvgeneration likes this.
  12. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    According to one of the articles linked above, he does not own his solo Geffen masters, but has started the legal process to reclaim them when the 35-year mark is reached.
     
  13. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Ernie and Debby Rettino (the people who perform on the Psalty Christian childrens series) own the rights to the Psalty albums of Christian childrens music and have it all available at www.psalty.com
     
  14. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    The Everly Brothers' Cadence recordings are owned by the estate of Andy Williams.
     
    Joel1963 likes this.
  15. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Taylor Swift has signed a new contract with Universal Republic with stipulations that she controls the new recordings and is working on negotiating to obtain the rights to her Big Machine Records catalog as well while Big Machine is up on the auction block. Since Big Machine has long had a distribution contract with Universal, it is likely that Universal will gain the Big Machine catalog when it is gets sold and if Universal buys the label, then Taylor will very likely end up getting her Big Machine catalog as well.

    With New Contract, Taylor Swift Secures Better Deal For All UMG Artists

    How Taylor Swift Could Get Her First Six Albums Back - and Push Label Prices to New Heights (Analysis)
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2018
    Timmy84 likes this.
  16. bosskeenneat

    bosskeenneat Forum Resident

    John Fogerty I bet is one guy that wishes he had ownership of the CCR masters. One thing is for certain; We would never have seen "Chronicle" and certainly not one whiff of the Golliwogs recordings.
     
    arisinwind likes this.
  17. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    The self-titled 1975 album does have rights issues though.
     
  18. Timmy84

    Timmy84 Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Stevie Wonder (after the release of Where I'm Coming From onwards)
    Ray Charles' estate (ABC recordings and every other label afterwards)
    Sam Cooke owned his masters when he was living but I think his family sold them to Bob Keane (I could be wrong)
    Chuck Berry's estate (not sure when but I'm guessing in the '60s onwards? I know his estate doesn't own his '50s work)
    Metallica (every single one of their recordings, not to mention releasing stuff off their own label these days)
    Paul McCartney (I don't know how many but it's a good chunk; don't know if he owns all of them but he might)
    Ike Turner's estate (that's why so many Ike & Tina compilations were released on various labels, I imagine Ike helped with the releases when he was alive)
    Smokey Robinson (solo material, co-owns Miracles recordings with his ex-wife Claudette)
    Diana Ross (owns her post-1981 Motown masters due to her 1988 contract, which also had her at one point co-owning the stock in Motown; have no idea if she owns her '80s RCA material, but I think she does; I'm just guessing on her, she might not own much, feel free to correct me)
    Think the Isley Brothers (and the estates of O'Kelly and Marvin) own their T-Neck material but I'm honestly not sure about that either...
    Curtis Mayfield's estate owns his recordings (solo only, I think; not sure about the Impressions material)
    Bob Marley's estate owns his music
    Rick James claimed he owned his.
    Aretha Franklin's estate owns her post-1973 Atlantic material and what she released on other labels, including her own label (not sure about Arista/RCA)
    Howlin' Wolf might have owned some of his since he got into business sometime in the late '50s (after getting a GED and going to college; he also claimed he was getting paid off people covering his material in the '60s)

    ----
    Some of these were assured but some others I'm not totally sure of so again feel free to correct me. :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2019
  19. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Bob Dylan. When he resigned to Columbia (after Before the Flood) the deal was even time the delivered a new album he'd acquire an album from his back catalogue. Some time in the 90s he had them all 'under exclusive licence to Columbia Records'
     
    Timmy84 likes this.
  20. pocketcalculator

    pocketcalculator Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I believe the Who own some, if not all, (perhaps not the Shel Talmy and Track Records stuff) of their masters.
     
  21. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Bertie Higgins now owns the rights to all of his own masters including his Kat Family/CBS catalog as the Sony copyrights expired.
     
    McLover likes this.
  22. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    The Sam Cooke masters from At The Copa on forward are owned by ABKCO along with the SAR Records masters. Aretha's Arista/RCA catalog is owned by Sony.
     
  23. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph

    Location:
    Italy
    Did anyone already mention Radiohead?
     
  24. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    The Nightcrawlers who had a regional hit with "Little Black Egg" own their masters, and also Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah of "Lake Shore Drive" notoriety's heirs own their masters.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2020
    Mike Dow likes this.
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