Sony Music, Estate of Michael Jackson renew partnership

42 Year Relationship With The King Of Pop Is Extended In A Long Term Recording Agreement

Sony Music and the Estate of Michael Jackson have agreed to a landmark recording deal that will continue the label’s 42-year relationship with Michael Jackson and his music. Rob Stringer, Sony Music CEO and John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson have made the announcement that effective January 1, 2018, Sony Music will extend the term of their administration of Jackson’s record catalog in a long term recording agreement. Sony will also have the opportunity to partner on additional projects that the Estate may produce during the term of the agreement.

“Michael Jackson was an unsurpassed genius and an iconic force in music entertainment,” comments Stringer. “The music—and videos—he made as an artist as part of the Sony Music family are essential to pop culture history. We’re proud to be part of that history, and to find new innovative ways to make Michael’s music available to future generations of fans.”

“We couldn’t ask for more creative and innovative partners than Sony and Rob Stringer (whose history working personally with Michael goes back to the 1990s),” state Branca and McClain. “Michael continues to inspire generations of artists who have come after him and attract new fans who understand that his music and message are more important than ever. We look forward to continuing to preserve and develop his remarkable musical legacy with Sony.”

To date, Michael Jackson has achieved 40 RIAA certifications and 40 No. 1 chart positions and 102 Top 5 chart positions. Michael Jackson’s overall worldwide record sales exceed the 1 billion threshold including over 100 million sales of Thriller which remains the biggest selling album in history.

The last seven years of the creative partnership between Sony and the Estate have been characterized by the same kind of record-setting achievements that Jackson realized during his lifetime. His recordings continue to meet new sales benchmarks: Last year, Thriller became the first and only album in RIAA history to pass the triple Diamond mark with a 33X platinum certification; Bad also achieved Diamond status.

Jackson’s latest release, the compilation album, Scream, was his 16th Billboard Top 40 Album and 30th charting album and its release kicked off the worldwide, first annual Michael Jackson Halloween campaign. His previous release, 2014’s Xscape rocketed to No. 1 in 49 countries and produced the worldwide hit, “Love Never Felt So Good.” In conjunction with the release of that album, the Estate astounded the world with the technical wizardry of a ‘virtual Michael Jackson’ performance during the Billboard Music Awards, which gave the show its biggest ratings in years and became the topic of conversation worldwide.

Sony and the Estate have also partnered in the production of two critically acclaimed documentaries directed by Spike Lee: Bad 25 and Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall.

Other innovations created in conjunction with Sony include the first completely crowd-sourced music video for “Behind the Mask” (2010), the first Twitter music video premiere for “A Place With No Name” (2014) and a groundbreaking augmented reality campaign for Scream (2017).

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com