11/20/2010

HIStory Logo Updates

Answering a question in my blog: one month before the HIStory logo's trademark rights would expire in Germany, TePax extended the trademark rights with 10 more years until 2020.

Other German MJ trademarks are owned by the MJ Estate.

Opis None And Other Unreleased Songs?

Few weeks ago Katherine Jackson's shady business partner, Howard Mann released a song "Opis None" claiming that this is one of the unreleased materials from the MJ master tapes they own.

I have posted many articles about the background of the so called "MJ master tapes", just search for "Vintage" in my blog. In a nutshell: the master tapes owned by Henry Vaccaro and jointly used by Mann and Katherine are useless. These are already known and released songs, demos, studio sessions, some recordings from the Jackson Family Show in the late 70's, and some rare materials from Jackson siblings and other acts. And on the top of that they can not do anything with the tapes, because they don't have the approval neither from Universal, Sony and the MJ Estate. This is why neither Vaccaro, later Universal Express and now Mann can not do anything with the tapes.

Finally to close down this topic I have uploaded the full list of songs from the so called "MJ master tapes" that you may download here: http://www.scribd.com/full/43405353?access_key=key-aaxn8s51t7n6otjbpnv

11/14/2010

Tidbits

MJJ Ventures Inc. has been suspended. This move is most probably in connection with the new video release, and the clearing of MJ video copyrights.

The MJ Estate took over the Fire Mountain Services company that MJ and Marc Schaffel established in 2001. Another smart move in the "house cleaning".


A new official website has been created for the MJ themed Cirque de Soleil shows: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/michael-jackson-tour/default.aspx

11/06/2010

15 Months Of The MJ Estate

In the past 15 months I have been reporting mostly about MJ Estate related informations. I insisted on the first anniversary of MJ's death, but I have to highlight it again: In my opinion the MJ Estate did a GREAT job!

They not only managed to keep up MJ's empire, but they sorted out personal, business and legal matters. Racionalised the MJ Estate's spendings, created new ventures, hired well known people, paid off debts, look after intellectual properties, fought in legal matters. And most importantly: maintained MJ's legacy and made the fans happy.

Would you imagine to have a new MJ album full of unreleased tracks (released on December 10, 2010), a new MJ video collection with unreleased footage (released on November 22, 2010), a new MJ video game from one of the biggest manufacturers (released on November 26, 2010) and a new MJ world tour with Cirque De Soleil (tickets on sale November 3, 2010) at the same time?

If anyone from the Estate reads this, some observations from my last 15 months experience:

- The Family is a key issue, as we can see in the case of the new album release...

- The licensing rights are still shaky, another key point for creating a good brand (MJ Licensing, MJ Asia Rights, Vintage Pop Media issues).

- Paying off the debts, and resolving the Neverland issue is an important PR matter.

- More control over the new released, there are plenty of bugging CD's coming out using MJ's name.

- Get ahold on concert footage and release later, fans are dying to get them.

- There is a lot more in the online business. Planet Michael is a good start, but the official websites should be updated, centralised and other ventures can be launched. Online and mobile business is before a big boom.


Thank you for all the MJ Estate people, especially Mr. Branca and Mr. McClain.