Update: AEROSMITH Singer Sells 160 Songs For $50 Million
January 12, 2008, 16 years ago
According to Boston.com,
In a move that's likely to upset some AEROSMITH acolytes, Steven Tyler is selling a hefty number of the band's biggest hits to Primary Wave Music Publishing. The $50 million deal, first reported by the New York Post and later confirmed by the band's publicist, covers 160 songs written or co-written by Tyler. Included in the deal are Aerosmith songs dating to the 1980s, including 'Love In An Elevator', 'Dude Looks Like A Lady', 'Janie's Got A Gun', and 'Jaded'. (Tyler no longer owns the rights to the band's '70s hits such as 'Dream On', 'Sweet Emotion', and 'Walk This Way'.) Primary Wave, whose founder is former Arista and Virgin Records head Larry Mestel, has assembled an impressive collection of music in recent years, buying a stake in the Beatles songs of John Lennon, and the publishing catalogs of KURT COBAIN, DARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES, and STEVE EARLE, among others. In part, the deal was done now because of a recent change in US tax laws. Instead of paying substantial income taxes on such a sale, songwriters now pay a modest capital gains tax. Tyler said he also trusts Mestel not to use Aerosmith's music to sell mattresses.
"Primary Wave's expertise will ensure that my catalog will continue to rock generations well into the future and boldly go where no songs have gone before," Tyler told the tabloid.
