‘I want more money than anyone else…’
In August 1989, Michael Jackson turned thirty-one years old. Recent years had not been easy for him. Family pressures and demands, as well as career concerns, seemed to keep him in a continuous state of anxiety. Though he had left home, he never really left the womb. As much as he tried to shun his family, except for Katherine, he just could not seem to do it – mostly because they wouldn’t cooperate in that regard. They just get coming back for more. Somehow, their problems always ended up his.
Despite the fact that he was now in his thirties, many people in his circle felt that Michael had never grown up, that he was still an adolescent at heart, playing with his teenage male friends and entertaining handicapped youngsters at his palatial estate. He liked wearing his many disguises and was agitated when people pointed him out, not so much because he didn’t want to be identified as because he had left home thinking he had such a swell costume, no one should ever have been able to recognize him. Visiting Disneyland, Disney World and Universal Studios was still his favourite leisure-time activity; fantasy was a major part of his life.
On the career front, there had been much discussion as to how to follow
Bad
. Just as when he was attempting to conceptualize a successor to
Thriller
, Michael was concerned about competing with himself.
Bad
had not sold as many copies as
Thriller
and Michael was disappointed. Still, rather than try to compete with the previous two albums by issuing another one of new material, John Branca convinced Michael that he should release a Greatest Hits collection, entitled
Decade
, which would also include a few new songs. It was a good idea. It would take some pressure off Michael at a time when he did need a break in his life.
Michael intended to deliver
Decade
to the Sony Corporation, CBS Records’ parent company, in August of 1989. It was scheduled to be released in November in time for the Christmas sales rush.
‘I want more money than anyone else has ever gotten,’ Michael told John when the attorney began negotiating with CBS Records for the new album. John did not let him down. He arranged an eighteen million dollar advance, which was, indeed, ‘more money than anyone else has ever gotten’. The deal included a fifteen million dollar straight advance – which CBS would recoup from Jackson’s royalties before he would make a profit on the album – and a non-recoupable three million dollars which was a gift for Michael from his label. (On each of the three album deals John Branca negotiated for Michael Jackson at CBS he succeeded in getting for Michael three million as a bonus.)
Prior to the latest Michael Jackson deal, the Rolling Stones, who were also represented by John Branca, held the record for the most lucrative contract, with five-million-dollars-plus per album. According to the
Hollywood Reporter
, Billy Joel had $1.7 million as an advance at the time, Bruce Springsteen $2.5 million, and Madonna $1 million before bonuses, which could make it several times that.
Michael Jackson’s album royalty was forty-one points. What that means in terms of percentage of retail sale varies with each formula, from CD to tape to disc; however, the album came to approximately 25 per cent of the retail price of each record. Michael’s 25 per cent translated to $2.50 per album sold. However, when the three-million-dollar non-recoupable gift was added to Michael’s royalty rate, it actually jumped to about 29 per cent of retail.
To put Jackson’s royalty into perspective, Madonna made 18 per cent at the time. Most other acts of superstar status made 12 per cent.
In its entirety, Michael’s new deal with CBS would be worth as much as fifty million dollars because, in addition to the advance and non-recoupable gift, John Branca had negotiated a joint business venture with the company. According to that arrangement, CBS would finance a custom label for Michael Jackson – a subsidiary of CBS Records which would be Jackson Records (shades of Joseph!) – which Michael would oversee. CBS would provide 100 per cent of the funding for the new label, and then split the profit equally with Michael. He would also own half the stock and thereby be entitled to half the assets if the label was ever sold. This was a coup for Michael and still yet another tribute to John Branca’s masterly negotiating skills.
Since Janet Jackson had constantly called upon her brother for advice and guidance, John felt that she would be the most logical choice as first artist to sign to the label. Michael was elated at the possibility. (It didn’t happen, though. Instead, Janet signed a contract with Virgin Records for an estimated thirty-two million dollars. When finalized, in March 1991, it was said to be the largest recording contract in history, but these deals are always said to be just that. There’s always a way to calculate ambiguous figures and money not yet earned but projected in such a way to make any decent, big-money record deal ‘the largest in history’.)
In the final
coup de grâce
for Michael, as far as
Decade
was concerned, John Branca negotiated a five-million-dollar advance from Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corporation, the Warner Bros. publishing arm that administers the copyrights on Jackson’s songs. (Michael owns all of his copyrights. Warner-Tamerlane has no ownership, but, for a small fee, the company does collect money generated by publishing deals around the world involving his compositions.) For an artist, five million dollars is a huge advance from a music publishing company; most superstars get about one million.
All of the pieces of the puzzle were in place for a tremendous
Decade
kick-off. However, by January 1990, it was obvious that Michael would fail to deliver
Decade
. He was ambivalent about the format, there was some confusion as to which songs to include on it. The original plan was for the package to consist of four cuts from
Off the Wall
, seven from
Thriller
, six from
Bad
, three to five new songs, ‘State of Shock’ (the hit duet with Mick Jagger); ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Someone in the Dark’ (from Michael’s
E.T
. narration album), ‘Come Together’ and two vintage Motown songs that Michael was re-mastering. However, Michael kept vacillating about the plan, and, in the end, his close friend, entertainment mogul David Geffen, finally talked him out of putting out the album, altogether. Rather, Michael would produce an album of new material. (The deal John Branca negotiated for him at CBS and with Warner-Tamerlane applied to any product Michael chooses to issue.) Here we go, again, John Branca must have thought.