Eddie and Alex Van Halen Sign Publishing Deal

http://www.radioandmusic.com/biz/music/publishing/deep-emotions-publishing-gets-rights-van-halen’s-catalogue-south-asia-150219

DEEP EMOTIONS PUBLISHING GETS RIGHTS TO VAN HALEN’S CATALOGUE IN SOUTH ASIA
RNMTEAM
02/19/2015 07:05:18 PM IST

MUMBAI: Indian music publisher Deep Emotions Publishing, which is owned by Universal Music Publishing Group, has acquired exclusive rights for songs by American rock group Van Halen. The agreement will allow Deep Emotions Publishing to represent band in South Asia. The pact was signed by Atlas Music Publishing in New York.

The deal will include the entire Van Halen catalogue (excluding the most recent album- ‘A Different Kind Of Truth’), and includes multiple hit singles and albums that have collectively sold close to 90 million copies worldwide. The rock band rose to fame during the 80′s, but later went on hiatus in 1999, before reuniting in 2003.

Commenting on the agreement, Achille Forler MD Deep Emotions said, “With Eddie’s ground-breaking, blindingly fast technique and Alex’s prodigious talent, Van Halen have rewritten the rules of rock music and changed the course of rock history — in the late 70s they set the template for the hard rock and heavy metal of the 80s and the 90s. We are particularly honoured to represent the songs of these musical pioneers. We will help ensure that new generations of music listeners are keenly aware of just how important Van Halen is to the music world and how incredible their songwriting is.”

In a couple of month’s time, the publisher will start pushing out songs by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee to advertising agencies and radio stations. Forler added, “We want the music of the Van Halen to be played on as many platforms as possible. We will push it by sending selected tracks to advertising agencies and help radio stations with interviews and provide them with more information about the band.”

This means that the publishing company will administer the band’s all-time favourites such as ‘Everybody Wants Some!’, ‘Runnin’ With the Devil’, ‘Hot for Teacher’, ‘Unchained’, ‘Dance the Night Away’, ‘Panama’, ‘Jump’, ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’, ‘Eruption’ and many more.

In the past, the music publishing for Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen’s catalogue was held by Warner/Chappell music.

In addition to Mike, how does this deal affect Dave, Sammy, & Gary? Wouldn’t they benefit too, not just Ed & Alex?
EDIT: here’s what the VHND had to say:
“The VHND notes that this is simply what the music industry calls a “Sync” deal. All it means is that Van Halen is giving Atlas Music Group the right to place their music in projects such as film/tv/commercials, etc. That’s all. This has nothing to do with the future of the band, or any future releases, or re-releasing any past releases. It just means we’ll probably be hearing more Van Halen tunes in movies and commercials. Should be another way to expose more kids to the genius of Van Halen…”

I asked my former guitar teacher (who is a songwriter/composer in LA/Hollywood) about how this all works. This was his response.

“When you write a song and it gets aired. There are two “entities” that receive money from that airing. The “writers” and the “publishers”. If you were to write and record a song by yourself, walk into WRIF and get them to play it, you would get two checks for the same amount (from either BMI or ASCAP). Since most musicians don’t record on their own dime, do all of the CD making and promote the music themselves, record companies ask to own either all of the publishing or the majority of it. In VH’s case, I would expect that WB owns their earlier publishing. If a group is super-famous they can negotiate to keep their publishing since the label assumes to make a fortune off the CD sales.

The question is: when did the the VH brothers (without Mike or Dave) buy their publishing back from WB (or whomever owned it) to even have the right to sign an administration deal? I assume this deal means the VH brothers will still own the publishing and they give the right to Atlas to administer. For example: Atlas could say to Wendy’s, you can use Drop Dead Legs in a commercial for a fee of $100,000 (split between Atlas, the writers and the publishers). When the commercial airs, the writers will receive a check and the publishers will receive a check then as part of the agreement, the publishers will pay a percentage to the administrator.

Aside from the income, musicians value their publishing because the publisher has the right to sell use of the music. For example, when Michael Jackson bought the Beatles catalog, he sold rights for Something In The Way She Moves to a car commercial and George Harrison was pissed because he thought it diminished the meaning of that song.

So, all in all this isn’t that big a deal. Just that Atlas will now be deciding where VH’s catalog will be used and for how much $.”

I asked a follow up question about how the publishing would be handled in the case where band members are no longer in the band:

“It’s doubtful Gary was ever offered any publishing. If Sammy owned any, he would have had to be bought out for Ed and Al to be the only ones to make this deal. Might be Sammy never owned any. Could be there is a Van Halen Publishing Company that has had various members (Roth, Sammy, Mike, Wolfie etc…). At various points, some of them may have been bought out and Ed and Al are the only 2 left.

Publishing rights and money only come into play on material released for airplay. For example, if you released an album by yourself (or even with a label) and sold 100,000 copies but no song was ever played on TV, radio or in films, there would be $0 publishing.

For the most part, I consider the publishing for my material rightly owned by the person/company who publishes it. It cracks me up when musicians say to me, “I’ll never sign a deal where I lose my publishing”. I say, “Go ahead and do all the publishing work then. It’ll take all 24 hours of every day.”

So this whole publishing thing is pretty much just who is going to shop their catalog around and get paid for it. We’ve heard Van Halen in “Better Off Dead”, “Private Parts”, “Mission to Mars”, “Superbad” and several other movies, the Pepsi commercial on the 90s, a Nissan commercial, whatever that commercial was for in the last Super Bowl. It will just be someone else doing the selling and collecting the check.

guitard: Not trying to stir up shit here … just asking the question that no one seems to have mentioned …

How much did Mike contribute on the creative side of the band’s music?Did he come up with any of the basic song structures, melodies, lyrics, etc., etc.?

To me, that’s where the rubber meets the road in terms of who should be making money off of the back catalog.

Eddie was saying back in ’80 that he was talking to Billy Sheehan about having him join the band and in ’81 he did an interview where he basically said Mike just does what he’s told and has bought a lot of import cars off of the band’s name. In general, it seems to have always been Ed/Al creating the music and then whomever the singer is worked on lyrics and melodies. I think it’s probably 80% Eddie coming up with riffs and musical ideas and now and then, Al would help with an arrangement. Then when the lyrics and melodies came together, the song’s structure would be arranged to fit the song. This would have been done between the band and the producer, by and large.

Incidentally, I peeks at the BOBW credits and as of 2004, Mike was credited on everything except the three new songs on the compilation. If anyone has anything that was pressed and released after that date, I’d be interested in seeing if Mike’s name is credited. From what I’ve read, he only signed away everything on 1984.

I can’t see Dave and Sammy signing over their rights. Just doesn’t make sense to me they seem to be the sharpest business minds in the band.

Dave: Philosophically, I agree with you. But legally, the question is, what does the contract say? Because if the band agreed to split 4 ways, for example, then that’s what they should be paid. Lots of bands do that, just to squash the money issue up front. That usually works until lots of money is being made, lol! So if Ed feels later on he’s getting screwed out of Mike’s share, well, philosophically he’s right, assuming Mike didn’t really write anything. But then Ed’s changing the whole philosophy, not just the songwriting & publishing.

Are you sure something like this is actually based on a contract? Back when VH1 was being created (the 3-4 year period leading up to its release), I seriously doubt there was a contract regarding who gets what for song writing.

I always thought this was based on the copyright registered at the US Copyright Office.

frankm: song writing-wise, I don’t know, but performance-wise, I don’t think Van Halen would have nearly the same sound without Mike. The same can be said for any of the members. Change the cast of characters and the whole sound changes.

That may of been true for a while but then they released ADKOT and with that cd and the live shows, there isn’t too much difference at all (in back ground vocals) . In fact, IMO, they sound better live because there are no longer those high pitch screams that Mike always did. I hated them with a passion…