L-R)Ziffren Brittenham Partner John Branca, Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek outside the Entertainment Law Initiative Luncheon and Scholarship Presentation Friday. (Photo: Michael Underwood/PictureGroup)
Attorney John Branca has represented the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Doors, Fleetwood Mac and more. And he’s been involved in significant music business transactions, such as EMI’s acquisition of the Jobete publishing catalog of classic Motown and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization’s sale to Imagem Music Group. But Branca’s most important professional relationship was with his client Michael Jackson. Branca was with Michael when he made virtually every key business decision during his career, including his purchase of the Beatles’ catalog, forming the Sony/ATV publishing joint venture with Sony Corp. and helping him refinance his debt. Since Michael’s death in 2009, Branca and John McClain have been the co-executors of his estate. So far, Branca has negotiated a deal with Sony Music Entertainment worth up to $250 million. He also oversees the Estate’s investment in Sony/ATV.
Branca, speaking to a room that included his firm’s lawyers, past honorees Joel Katz and Jay Cooper, and Kobalt’s Willard Ahdritz, focused on being driven by passion for music. A fan of Elvis Presley, the Doors, the Rolling Stones, Berry Gordy and the Beach Boys, he related two stories that greatly affected his career.
The first came when he was a second-year lawyer and had to help the Beach Boys decide whether to retain Steve Love as their manager. Mike Love and Al Jardine were pro; Carl and Dennis Wilson were against. Brian Wilson was asked to cast the deciding vote, but was “deep in slumber with his head down on a conference table,” Branca said. He improvised, asking Brian to knock once to keep Love, two to fire him. “Lo and behold, Brian knocked three times.” It became Branca’s job to get Love to resign.
And when Branca first became Michael Jackson’s lawyer, Michael called with a request that was of utmost urgency. “I got ready had my pen out and notebook out,” Branca related. Michael’s request? He needed his pinball machine fixed.
Branca thanked family members and related musical and sports experiences of his youth before bringing it back to the music industry of today. In a world in which more companies attempt to bring every element of a career under a single umbrella, Branca reasoned, “lawyers remains an independent voice in the life of an artist.”
“While we are experiencing blatant consolidation in the channels of distribution in the music business, where an artist’s manager, promoter, ticketing agency and merchandiser can be all under one corporate umbrella,” Mr. Branca said, alluding to Live Nation Entertainment, which owns Ticketmaster and manages hundreds of artists, “we lawyers remain an independent voice in the life of the artist to protect and where necessary defend that artist.”
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