The latter urged Jackson to keep his stake in the Sony/ATV catalog at all costs, even when the singer was in dire financial trouble during the 2000s. Throughout his career, Jackson also sought the advice of other shrewd businessmen, including billionaires David Geffen and Ron Burkle. Many praise Jackson for bringing in Quincy Jones to work on Thriller, but it was Branca who scored the industry-leading royalty rate that The Gloved One enjoyed at the time (nearly $2 per album sold), allowing him to reap untold profits from what turned out to be the best-selling album of all time. Perhaps the best example is superstar entertainment attorney John Branca, who negotiated many lucrative deals for Jackson and has done a remarkable job with the singer's estate thus far.
One of Jackson's best business habits was to keep shrewd advisers around him. 1 hits in a catalog, you almost can't put a price on it."
"You're talking about the greatest catalog in existence," Ryan Schinman, chief of Platinum Rye, the world's largest buyer of music and talent for corporations, told me shortly after Jackson's death. The estimate marks a 3,000% increase in value from the catalog's initial purchase price - better than the 1,650% return on Class A shares of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway since 1990. Insiders place the catalog's value somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion, based on estimated proceeds of $50 million to $100 million per year. Today, the Jackson estate and Sony share ownership of the catalog, which now boasts half a million songs including titles by Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Eminem and other artists. Ten years later Sony paid Jackson $90 million for half the rights, forming a joint venture called Sony/ATV. In 1985, he shelled out $47.5 million to buy a publishing catalog that included 250 Beatles songs. Perhaps the best move of Jackson's financial career was one that had nothing to do with his own music. But piling up stacks of it - and finding unusual ways to ensure that more would follow - was one of his many talents. Keeping money was not one of Jackson's strong suits. He blew the profits from sales of 750 million records on extravagances ranging from $10,000-a-night hotel stays to the construction and upkeep of his sprawling Neverland Ranch. To be sure, Jackson's spending habits could put a Russian oligarch to shame.
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