Manilow Sells Song Catalog

[Scooter]

https://bit.ly/2Ph0z8I

Variety
Aug 2, 2020 11:00pm PT

Barry Manilow Sells Song Catalog to Hipgnosis
===========

https://bit.ly/2Xmzu8y

Billboard
8/3/2020 by Lars Brandle

Hipgnosis Songs Buys Barry Manilow Catalogue
==============

Scooter

[marvin]

Thank you Scooter for posting this story from "Variety".
Congratulations to Barry, Garry and their lawyers for this deal.
The financial terms were not revealed, so we do not know what Barry sold his song catalogue for, but it sounds like Barry will perhaps earn more money now just by the sale of his songs to Hipgnosis than he would earn performing.
Perhaps Q can let us know what he thinks Barry's songs were sold for.
Given that Barry can't perform because of the pandemic, the timing could not have been better for him to sell his catalogue.
So, given that Hipgnosis is in the stock market and is on the upswing, according to "Variety", perhaps now fans can invest in these stocks and can profit along with Barry and Hipgnosis. Perhaps the fan club can now ask fans to buy stocks in Barry songs along with everything else they sell.
The article states that Barry has 50 top 40 songs in his catalogue. Is the number correct or do you think Barry has earned more than or less than 50 top 40 songs?
Thanks again Scooter. Regards, Marvin

[marvin]

I forgot to add that for Barry his song "When The Good Times Comes Again" has come true for him today. Marvin

[Brenda M]

Makes sense.

[Angela Parker]

Does that mean he will have to pay a fee when he sings his own songs in concert?

[annielove...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 4:56:35 PM UTC-4, Angela Parker wrote:
> Does that mean he will have to pay a fee when he sings his own songs in >concert?

good question!

and also, will Hipgnosis be able to sell Mr M's songs for commercial use?

I'm thinking of that commercial a number of years back in which Fred Astaire was used to sell vacuum cleaners. I love Fred Astaire and thought the commercialization of his image and voice was a travesty. I would die if I heard "Could it Be Magic" being used to sell Mr Clean Magic Erasers or something

Annie

[D]

If another company (in this case, Hipgnosis) owns the rights to the songs, then they can license them out in whatever way they see fit. So yeah, you could theoretically see Flo dancing at the Copa, or something euqllay strange.
It's why we get the occasional commercial using Beatles songs. I may be wrong but I think Sony/ATV owns most of the rights now, as they got them when Michael Jackson started running into financial troubles before he died.

[marvin]

Does that mean he will have to pay a fee when he sings his own songs in concert?

I honestly do not know the specifics Angela, but given that Barry sold his song catalogue I am sure that he and his lawyers drew up clauses to exempt his company from having to pay royalties for his own songs, otherwise why would he agree to sell his rights to his songs. Thanks, Marvin

[marvin]

On Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 9:43:18 PM UTC-4, annielove...@gmail.com wrote:

As Dave pointed out, the company that now owns Barry's song catalogue can ask advertising agencies to pay royalties for the use of Barry's songs in commercials. I don't think that it is necessarily a travesty to hear a performer's song on a commercial. I recall that Carly Simon's "Anticipation" was used in a Heinz ketchup commercial and I am sure many who saw the ad wanted to hear "Anticipation".
I am sure that Barry would be happy with any commercial that will keep the memory of his songs alive, especially given his understanding of the use of commercial jingles. Thanks, Marvin

[D]

For some odd reason, my mind went off wandering into some really, shall we say... inappropriate Barry-song choices for the advertising market. Can you picture Prilosec (or one of those) using "Something's Comin' Up" for example? LOL

[Carmen]

A few years ago, I remember “Can’t Smile Without You” being used in a car commercial. Only I forget which car it was for. I think the commercial even premiered around or during The Super Bowl that year.

[Scooter]

The car was an Infinity Q45.

Here's what he had to say about it:

https://bit.ly/2XzLB2l

Billboard

A Q&A With Barry Manilow

9/27/2004

[snip to]

Q: Why don't we hear more of your music in commercials?

A: I [almost] always turn them down, because they're going to
hurt them. I remember they asked me if they could do "This
One's for You" for a Budweiser commercial years ago. I said,
"No, no!" So they wrote their own song, "This Bud's for You."

They used my recording of "I Can't Smile Without You" for a
car commercial. That one doesn't bother me. As long as they
leave my arrangement alone or they leave the feel alone or
they leave what I did alone. But I couldn't let them do a beer
commercial with "This One's for You." They would have ruined
the emotion of the song, and that was just too important to
me.

[Scooter]

As a follow up to the CSWY car commercial discussion:

https://nym.ag/3kiRsT8

New York Magazine
Jan. 5, 1998

Album of the Year
By Barbara Lippert

[snip to]

A buzz saw to the national psyche, 1997: You’ve probably seen
the Infiniti commercial in which a Danny De Vito-type guy
receives divorce papers at the front door of his garish
mansion. “Half? She gets half?” he wails. “I’ll give her
half!” – and begins a War of the Roses-like tear through the
place with chainsaw and blowtorch, hacking the piano, the
couch, the pool table in half. When he gets to the garage and
the sight of his true inamorata, a shiny, erotic Infiniti Q45,
he stops. Now we are bathed in Barry Manilow’s “I Can’t Smile
Without You.” “On second thought,” he says, “maybe we can work
something out.”

The spot, according to TBWA Chiat/Day, the agency that created
it, has been “a tremendous success and has already won a
couple of awards.” Fine. But the irony here is that while the
nineties zeitgeist is supposedly about asceticism, atoning for
the vulgar appetites of the eighties, the reality is that this
$48,000 vehicle is now being sold with a show of ostentatious
wealth and brute-force aggression. Back when the car was
introduced, in the age of late-eighties excess, it was
promoted through spots that were Zen-like, soft, and quiet,
with calming natural sounds of running water, and shots of
rocks and trees. Whose eighties is it, anyway?

[snip]

[annielove...@gmail.com]

On Monday, August 3, 2020 at 9:04:05 AM UTC-4, Scooter wrote:

Re: MANILOW SELLS SONG CATALOG


I don't like it.


I just saw a tv commercial for Anoro, a medication used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which uses the song "Go Your Own Way", written by Lindsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac.


The song is from Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album and was written by Buckingham to Stevie Nicks after their breakup. Classic Fleetwood Mac.
Good stuff, great album.

Now being used in service of big pharma.


I do not EVER want to hear any Manilow song being used to hawk any kind of commercial product. EVER.

I guess since the song catalog is out there now, anything is possible though.


All I know is, if I ever hear CIBM, WINE, Even Now, or any other signature Manilow song in any other context than Mr M singing it in an appropriate performance venue, Imma LOSE IT.


Man, 2020 sucks. In many, many subtle and surprising ways.


That is all,

Annie

[Brenda M]

Annie,

I know how you feel.

I’m sure Barry probably didn’t want to sell his children. He probably held off as long as he could.

But I’d never judge him for doing what he has to do to survive in 2020.

We all have to make hard choices to get through this horrible time.

Brenda

[D]

If Barry decided to sell his catalog, then that was his decision to make. If you don't like what a song is being used for, then don't buy the item in question. Easy.

And besides, considering the VSM... seems kinda like the circle has come back around again, no?

Although I'd forgotten about CSWY being used in a car commercial. I figured it would end up being used to sell toothpaste. :-) Come to think of it, though... Barry didn't write that one.

[annielove...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, August 8, 2020 at 10:40:42 PM UTC-4, Brenda M wrote:

I'm not sure I agree that Mr M had to sell the song catalog to survive financially. I have to think his net worth is such that a year or so of cancelled shows would not cause him to start tag-sale-ing and ebay-ing his stuff in order to keep Casa di Manilow afloat in all of it's climate controlled glory.


If I had to guess, I'd say that Mr M and The Handsomest One looked at a bunch of factors: his age; the realistic # of years left to perform and that projected income (maybe here's where the pandemic delays factored in); the track record of the last group of album releases (no mega hits generated as in the early years) and I'm sure a lot of other factors beyond my understanding when making the decision to outsource the babies.


Plus I'm guessing that Mr M received a boatload of cash from Hipgnosis in exchange for his catalog. Probably never has to work again, although I suspect he already had more than he needed already.


But this is all guesswork on my part.....I don't know how asset management works as far as the wealthy are concerned. Mr Annie and I are at the level of keeping the winter thermostat at 68 and getting excited when the cable bill doesn't go up in a year, so......yeah.....You go make that sweet cash, Mr M!


While I will be sick to hear a Manilow tune commercialized, I don't judge him personally for having sold his catalog. Still a fan for life.

Best,
Annie

[annielove...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 12:01:21 AM UTC-4, D wrote:
> On Saturday, August 8, 2020 at 10:40:42 PM UTC-4, Brenda M wrote:
> > Annie,
> >
> > I know how you feel.
> >
> > I’m sure Barry probably didn’t want to sell his children. He probably held off as long as he could.
> >
> > But I’d never judge him for doing what he has to do to survive in 2020.
> >
> > We all have to make hard choices to get through this horrible time.
> >
> > Brenda
>
> If Barry decided to sell his catalog, then that was his decision to make. If >you don't like what a song is being used for, then don't buy the item in >question. Easy.

Oh, really, D? Way to be dismissive. Seriously.

[D]

Oh dear lord, here we go again.
The world does NOT revolve around you, and you're not worth the time.
You don't like what someone does, don't support it. Be it Barry, that guy in the White House, or anyone else. Simple.

If you want to take that as being dismissive, that's your problem, not mine.