SONY EXTENDS JACKSON ESTATE DEAL

Sony Music and the Estate of Michael Jackson have extended the term of Sony’s administration of MJ's catalog in a long term recording agreement. In addition, Sony will have the opportunity to partner on additional projects that the Estate may produce in the future.

Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer, and John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson, made the announcement.

"Michael Jackson was an unsurpassed genius and an iconic force in music entertainment. The music—and videos—he made as an artist as part of the Sony Music family are essential to pop culture history,” Stringer said. “We're proud to be part of that history, and to find new innovative ways to make Michael's music available to future generations of fans."

Branca and McClain commented, "We couldn't ask for more creative and innovative partners than Sony and Rob Stringer.”

Over the last seven years, Sony and the Estate have released the compilation album Scream and Xscape, a #1 album in 2014, and produced two documentaries directed by Spike Lee, Bad 25 and Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall.

Other efforts include the first completely crowd-sourced music video for "Behind the Mask" (2010), the first Twitter music video premiere for "A Place With No Name" (2014) and an augmented reality campaign for Scream (2017).