This week, it was announced that HarbourView Equity Partners had made a big deal with the estate of famous music producer Quincy Jones to buy some of his music and non-music assets. This deal includes Jones’s music and publishing rights, which means he will get paid for his work on Michael Jackson’s huge albums “Off the Wall,” “Thriller,” and “Bad,” which have sold more than 100 million copies around the world.
HarbourView now gets royalties from Jones’s most famous songs, like “Soul Bossa Nova” (which was famously sampled in Austin Powers and Ludacris’s “One Spot”) and George Benson’s “Give Me the Night.” The deal also includes extra rights, like Jones’s role as executive producer on the hit sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” in the 1990s. The financial terms are still secret, but the purchase is all about protecting the legacy from unauthorized uses like AI exploitation.
HarbourView wants to work closely with Jones’s family to protect his name, image, and likeness for educational and cultural purposes. The company’s ongoing royalties are guaranteed by Jones’s huge catalog, which is made even bigger by a lot of sampling (for example, Kanye West’s “Good Life” via Jackson’s “P.Y.T.”). This move fits with HarbourView’s focus on investing in culturally important forms of entertainment.
