This is a big week for music. Three live episodes of The Voice. Country Music Awards on Wednesday. And last night was Cher Night on Dancing with the Stars. The pigs sure are in a musical mood.
After watching Cher, this one pulled out his Beatles lunch box. He wonders why The Beatles didn't keep the copyright to all their songs.
It's because back in the early 1960s, they were losing 90% of their income to taxes. Lawyers advised them to find a way to channel their revenue into capital gains instead of income, which would mean a much lower tax rate. So in 1963 they assigned their publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created in part by their manager, Brian Epstein. This affected songs written after 1963, but not early ones like "She Loves You", "I Saw Her Standing There", "From Me to You", "There's a Place", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Misery",
"Please Please Me", "Ask Me Why", "Love Me Do", and "P.S. I Love You."
John and Paul each owned 15% of the shares; George and Ringo each had .8%. Northern Songs was bought by Associated Television Corporation (ATV) in 1969. In 1984, ATV (who also owned the publishing rights of many other artists) put their music catalog up for sale. This is when Michael Jackson bought it, outbidding Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. In 1995, Sony Corporation paid Michael Jackson $95 million to merge with ATV and form Sony/ATV, thus diluting Jackson's share.
Interesting fact: Publishing agreements call for royalties to be split 50/50 between the publisher and the songwriter. So even though Michael Jackson owned the publishing rights, that portion of the royalties hadn't ever gone to The Beatles. They continued to receive their songwriter royalties as always.
"That was too much information!", this pig says.
He wants to play, but can't quite reach.
"Need some help?"
New plan - sit here and look cute until a human comes along to play for them.
She's really good at playing the radio.
Ever wonder how royalties are handled for digital music? SoundExchange is a not-for-profit agency that collects and distributes royalties from some web, satellite, and cable radio broadcasters (such as Pandora, SiriusXM, and Music Choice).
They pay 50% of the royalties to owners of the sound recordings, 45% to the performing artist, and retain a 4.9% administrative fee. They started in 2003, paying out $3 million; this year the projected payout is $500 million. The top song in 2013 is "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars.
During the finals of this past season of So You Think You Can Dance, Aaron and Melinda did a beautiful, emotional tap dance to that song.
Pigs love tap and accordian, too.
"You pick it up."
"No, YOU pick it up"
THIS is how you pick it up, and draw a crowd, too.
Enjoy some music in your life, whatever kind you like.
Yesterday was the first anniversary of Piggy Pile and the pigs wanted to celebrate in a big way. And with pigs being as clever as they are, they had their own ideas on what would make their day truly special.
First they put together a mood board. Looks like they're in the mood for horses. (This is the first time I realized they're able to get into the refrigerator on their own.)
Some of them are doing a little research to show what responsible horse owners they would be. Who can resist that hopeful gaze?
Others are drawing pictures of the exact kind of horse they have in mind. OK, OK, I get the picture.
We headed out for a day of horsing around. Even Pig Dean got in the mood and was able to tear himself away from his racy convertible.
They rode the carousel and this little piggy grabbed the ring.
Um, not exactly a horse, but the ride was still fun.
Back home for cupcakes. They ate two of the candles before I knew what was happening.
They were happy with this present...
... but this one was their favorite.
I see they have the date marked on next year's calendar.
Happy Pigiversary!
I believe in teamwork. For example, I like to shop at garage sales, resale shops, flea markets, and antique stores. And the pigs like to scavenge through what I bring home.
I have quite a piggy pile of accumulated goods and haven't gotten around to putting them away yet. For now, some of them are just sitting on this table.
The piggy in the back likes the martini set that I showed you earlier this week.
Piggy on the left has his eye on the cat bola.
I put a surprise for them in the sewing room. It's a high chair. Let's look in on them doing a little teamwork of their own.
"My plate is empty and I'm hungry!!!"
"I'm working on it. There seems to be some sort of delay."
"I'm kinda busy right now, waiting for my tea."
"Here's the problem - there's nobody in the kitchen!!"
Piggy totem pole. Now they just need to coordinate the Cooking Team with the Eating Team.
You might remember when I bought the pigs their first car. Pig Dean took it over for himself.
I found this car at a garage sale a few weeks ago. The first ride is a little thrilling and one must hunker down until the butterflies go away.
A real pro now - feeling good enough to come up for air.
Oh yoo hoo, Pig Dean! Look at my car!!
Sniff. A pedal car is hardly a real car.
