Quote:
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud
Okay, as I had assumed, the revenues reported by the article in the OP are extremely overstated.
http://www.billboard.com/biz/article...source=twitter
Michael Einhorn told jurors in federal court in Los Angeles that songwriters Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have received $58.5 million since 2011 for dozens of works, including “Stairway,” their band’s 1971 hit and most recognizable song.
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Even if we extrapolate that figure over the course of 37 years, it equals $440 million dollars, which is far shy from the $575 million stated in the OP article, which supposedly was for Stairway only.
Add to that, I can certainly guarantee that the majority of Zeppelin's overall royalty and album sales earnings were garnered in the past 15 years, not the first 22, with the bulk coming from the remasters. As I mentioned earlier, Statutory Rate for an album released in 1971 was 2 cents per song whereas an album released in 2007 would have paid 9.1 cents per song. It's likely that they negotiated a much higher percentage than the 14% earned from each unit sale in 1971, probably 21% or more, which is generally allocated to "Superstar" acts.
I'd approximate that the band earned $10.5 million from the sale of Motherload (5 million copies times $9.99 times a 21% royalty rate) while the album overall earned nearly $50 million.
Zeppelin didn't allow their music to be used in Film & TV early in their career, with Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous, the first allowed to do so. They earned tens of millions for the Cadillac advertising campaign and apparently, a minimum of $10 million in sync fees in the past few years.
I would estimate that their overall career earnings from mechanical and performance income is closer to $275-350 million, which is still a staggering number but no where near the $575 million reportedly for a single song. |
I am not sure about this part. Yes the remasters did sell-but nothing like Zep in its earning years as a touring band. They had 6 albums in the top 100 all at the same time. They sold something like 2 million records of Zep 4 in the first month-went on to sell 23 million copies. Physical Graffiti sold over 4 million copies its first few years-now sitting at 16 million.
A quick look at the RIAA site tends to go against your statement as well. If you go back 15 years- only 9 records have achieved another level of Gold or Platinum. 3 of those are greatest hits.
IMO their "bulk" came in the 70's with a huge boost when Compact Disc became available. Most fans went out and bought every issue on the "new" format.
With a 111.5 records sold- a majority (56 million plus) in the last 15 is not plausible-the RAII does not support those numbers. I don't think any of the remasters even broke number 1-if they did it was short lived and nothing close to having 6 records sit in the the top hundred for a year or two. My guess would be the remasters and all the Greatest hits issues added maybe 15 to 20 million on the tally, at best - according to the Gold/Plat awards-which is still better than most bands in a career.