One of the more profitable items in the late King of Pop's idiosyncratic collection of odds and ends was his ownership of ATV, a music publisher that owned the rights to over 200 songs from the Beatles' repertoire. Years after this acquisition, Jackson agreed to a merger with Sony, forming Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Jackson retained 50 percent of the publishing rights to the Beatles tracks until his recent untimely death -- despite rumors to the contrary, he never sold his stake in the merged company.
Why is this news relevant to you, dear reader? Well, many faux-rockers have been worried that Jackson's passing would affect the final set list for
The Beatles: Rock Band. Fortunately,
Harmonix recently confirmed to IGN that the game's tracks won't be compromised by MJ's death, or the dispersal of his assets -- including the Sony/ATV stake -- that will take place in the coming weeks. However, we expect that
Elephant Man Bone Collector 3 will miss its fall launch window by a sizable margin.
The Beatles: Rock Band set list not compromised by Michael Jackson's death originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
