Who Owns Britney’s Music?

[mocha latto]

 

TL;DR AT THE BOTTOM! 

A really big debate i’ve been seeing on twitter lately has been over the ownership of Britney Spears music. Some people have vowed to never stream her music again until it’s made clear.

I couldn’t get a SOLID idea of who runs her music based off of research (but i did uncover a huge rabbit hole of information that i’ll keep to myself for right now) but I did get an idea.

Firstly, Britney Spears herself is technically trademarked. Lots of celebrities do this but under their own name. Britney Spears may be trademarked by someone else.

Baby One More Mark, LLC has trademarked the name Britney Spears for use on Beauty Products, Musical Works, Music Videos, Blogs, and a multitude of other things. (source)

This would give whoever owns said company exclusive rights to use her name for all the categories it’s been registered to. This (essentially, in a simple explanation) means whoever has a hold of that company has exclusive rights to anything tied to her brand. 

That being said- It’s likely Britney has NO control over her merch, and money made off her products goes to either her father or Micheal Kane (The most recent director at Britney Brands).

(Remember that random perfume that was released that Britney didn’t EVER promote?)

Moving back to the topic of music ownership, usually the label has complete control over who owns the music if they don’t own it exclusively.

James Spears has a company actually titled Sweet Jamie Music that apparently owns all of Jenny Limbs music (who even streams her music?) So presumably there must be something similar for her recordings? 

I looked at the companies James has been an officer of (there’s so many, it’s giving money laundering *SPECULATION/JOKE*)  and found a company called Miss Britney Recording. (source)

Most recently, Lou Taylor, Jamie Spears & Micheal Kane do not work for this company anymore, and the only listed officer shows an agent called “E RESIDENT AGENT” which is basically just a website that seems like an “easy business agent online” type of thing. Most of the companies used to control Britney’s career now have this company listed as an agent, it’s not abruptly clear who actually initiated that. 

BUT— the business has an address publicly listed, so I checked it to see if it would get me anywhere. It took me to a Public Accounting Firm called Miller Kaplan. 

Generally it seemed like her music is owned by these companies that Lou and Jamie created. It appears she doesn’t actually own her music (as she almost certainly doesn’t own her brand) but there’s not much info on who actually DOES own her music. The company listed as the agent also opens a whole other rabbit hole of questions too. 

But for now- I’m not streaming her music. I have CDs/Digital download so i’ll just do that cause none of this makes any sense. 

 

TL;DR: Music ownership information is not 100% public but based on public records it appears Britney does not own her own work at all. It LOOKS that her music was collectively owned by Jamie Spears & Lou Taylor at some point through companies that were established post c-ship.

If anyone else finds any juicy info that i didn’t include PLS add to this thread! 

 

[HIM]

Jive then when Jive died it moved to RCA but they haven’t tried it yet oh and maybe I think Larry the frog Rudolph owns some percentage 

[s&m]

Michael Kane again?

Listen, if you are nominated director of a company do you get to collect the profit or royalties or whatever?

Its the same thing! He doesn’t own the brand. Being director or president doesn’t mean ****

[mocha latto]

1 minute ago, HIM said:

Jive then when Jive died it moved to RCA but they haven’t tried it yet oh and maybe I think Larry the frog Rudolph owns some percentage 

 

Certain info can be found on ASCAP of her songs most of them go to universal but there’s several things that i’ve found where her songs are split between 5 different entities, and that’s just what’s affiliated with BMI/etc. But the music ownership is way more complicated than just her brand. So you can’t easily tell. 

 

Honestly, the discoveries I did make kind of make me concerned about her book. Britney Brands was pushing out coloring books & calendars through the same publishing company that gave her the book deal… But yet they don’t have enough paper to print her book?

[s&m]

After the conservatorship ended it made britney the owner of those companies. those companies never belonged to Jamie. They belonged to the conservatorship 

[mocha latto]

5 minutes ago, s&m said:

Michael Kane again?

Listen, if you are nominated director of a company do you get to collect the profit or royalties or whatever?

Its the same thing! He doesn’t own the brand. Being director or president doesn’t mean ****

Do you realize that the CEO of these companies created were either Lou or Jamie? You can check this if you don’t believe me. 

Currently I actually found more info on this, so i’m gonna update this thread if I can get solid info on who owns these companies 

[mocha latto]

Just now, s&m said:

After the conservatorship ended it made britney the owner of those companies. those companies never belonged to Jamie. They belonged to the conservatorship 

That’s definitely NOT how it works.

Also that’s not what public records say.

[s&m]

Just now, mocha latto said:

Do you realize that the CEO of these companies created were either Lou or Jamie? You can check this if you don’t believe me. 

Currently I actually found more info on this, so i’m gonna update this thread if I can get solid info on who owns these companies 

Again, in a company being a CEO doesn’t make you a shareholder 

[s&m]

Just now, mocha latto said:

That’s definitely NOT how it works.

Also that’s not what public records say.

You must know that public records, most of the times, are not updated! p.e: conservatorship being in place in hawai 

[mocha latto]

4 minutes ago, s&m said:

Again, in a company being a CEO doesn’t make you a shareholder 

Correct, but what sense would it make for a CEO to have zero control over its shareholders? 

Don’t you notice people like Beyoncé or Mariah Carey have their own companies serving the exact same purpose, but they own all these companies? Do you not think it makes no sense if she owns these assets that her name would be on none of it? 

[mocha latto]

Just now, mocha latto said:

Correct, but what sense would it make for a CEO to have zero control over its shareholders? 

Don’t you notice people like Beyoncé or Mariah Carey have their own companies serving the exact same purpose, but they own all these companies? Do you not think it makes no sense if she owns these assets that her name would be on none of it? 

Ex, Beyoncé Inc., Smiley Miley Inc., 

[s&m]

5 minutes ago, mocha latto said:

Correct, but what sense would it make for a CEO to have zero control over its shareholders? 

Don’t you notice people like Beyoncé or Mariah Carey have their own companies serving the exact same purpose, but they own all these companies? Do you not think it makes no sense if she owns these assets that her name would be on none of it? 

[s&m]

5 minutes ago, mocha latto said:

Correct, but what sense would it make for a CEO to have zero control over its shareholders? 

Don’t you notice people like Beyoncé or Mariah Carey have their own companies serving the exact same purpose, but they own all these companies? Do you not think it makes no sense if she owns these assets that her name would be on none of it? 

tell me one thing! why would michael kaplan own her assets? 

[mocha latto]

Just now, s&m said:

tell me one thing! why would michael kaplan own her assets? 

I honestly have no idea. I just know that as of the last filing for Miss Britney Recordings Inc,, that’s their address. Those same statements of information filings from November (File#C3265666) had THAT address listed as the companies business address. That filing says the CEO is Micheal Kane. There have been no filings showing Britney Spears as an added officer. 

But, as you said, that doesn’t mean that it’s not in the works, the Agent company might even be her doing. But as of right now she’s not listed as a CEO as other artists usually are for those kinds of companies.

[s&m]

3 minutes ago, mocha latto said:

I honestly have no idea. I just know that as of the last filing for Miss Britney Recordings Inc,, that’s their address. Those same statements of information filings from November (File#C3265666) had THAT address listed as the companies business address. That filing says the CEO is Micheal Kane. There have been no filings showing Britney Spears as an added officer. 

But, as you said, that doesn’t mean that it’s not in the works, the Agent company might even be her doing. But as of right now she’s not listed as a CEO as other artists usually are for those kinds of companies.

But once again you are not seeing my point! Even if he is registered as CEO, it’s doesn’t mean he is the owner! People need to separate those terms 

[very_urban]

This doesn't really make sense to me. What about the record company? I doubt that they just give away the rights to music easily.

[mocha latto]

1 minute ago, very_urban said:

This doesn't really make sense to me. What about the record company? I doubt that they just give away the rights to music easily.

Ask Taylor Swift how that worked out for her. Or Jojo...

[mocha latto]

Just now, mocha latto said:

Ask Taylor Swift how that worked out for her. Or Jojo...

Or Kesha.. Kelis.. 

[RedBloodedWoman]

Sony

[very_urban]

12 minutes ago, mocha latto said:

Ask Taylor Swift how that worked out for her. Or Jojo...

Ok? Swift's label was bought. Did someone buy Britney's label?