
How much is Stairway To Heaven worth? - PankajGhosh
http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/how-much-is-stairway-to-heaven-worth-161369
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ghubbard
"Zeppelin has played Stairway at every performance since 1971, yielding
somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000 in royalties."

They have to pay themselves royalties for their own songs? Must be nice to be
the middleman in that deal.

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GoodIntentions
So I'm wondering - is this mechanism some "Hollywood Accounting" where a band
can run a tour at an ostensible loss while paying themselves through a
royalties channel? Is it normal to split revenue this way?

Anyone who knows the industry care to educate us?

~~~
objclxt
Whilst there's a lot of Hollywood Accounting going on in the music business, I
don't think this is the case here.

Firstly, publishing rights aren't always owned by the band themselves. The
most famous example of this is probably The Beatles' publishing rights, which
were bought by Michael Jackson, and then Sony. Every time Paul McCartney plays
a Beatles' song live in his concerts he's going to have to pay some money to
Sony, even though he co-wrote it!

Bands that _do_ own publishing rights typically set up a limited company to
administer them, and songs are frequently co-written. Bands are often obliged
by these various agreements to effectively pay themselves (minus the
administration cut, etc). The article linked to seems to suggest that Led
Zeppelin either co-own the rights with Warner-Chappell, or have them
administer them on their behalf. Either way, they'll want their appropriate
cut!

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flatfilefan
The lady that has bought the stairway some time before 1971 must be a very
wealthy person now. I wonder how much would that bustle from her hedgerow net
on Sothebis today.

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jpdoctor
Someone has to be that guy: LZ opened for Spirit, so JP heard this:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sdbg2is2zQ>

