music
Who Owns Michael Jackson's Masters? Sony and the Estate Now Split Them
In brief
Who owns Michael Jackson's masters?
Michael Jackson's recordings are split by era. The Jackson 5's 1969-1975 sides were made for Motown, today a Universal Music Group label (universalmusic.com). Everything from Off the Wall (1979) to Invincible (2001) came out on Epic, part of Sony. Jackson's own songs sit in Mijac Music, administered by Sony Music Publishing.
In February 2024, Sony Music acquired half of Jackson's recorded masters and publishing from his estate for a reported $600 million, in a transaction that valued the whole catalog at around $1.2 billion (variety.com). Sony and the estate now hold Jackson's masters and songs together, through a joint venture the California Court of Appeal upheld in August 2024.
The three-part ownership map
Understanding who owns Michael Jackson's music requires separating three distinct property types: master recordings (who owns the recordings themselves), publishing rights (who owns the underlying songs), and name and likeness rights (who controls the brand). All three generate revenue, and they do not all sit with the same owner.
| Era | Albums | Master owner (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Jackson 5 / Motown (1969-1975) | Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5, ABC, Third Album, etc. | Universal Music Group (Motown Records) |
| Epic / CBS (1979-2001) | Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, HIStory, Blood on the Dance Floor, Invincible | Sony Music Entertainment (Epic) and the Michael Jackson Estate. Sony bought half of Jackson's recorded masters in February 2024 |
| Posthumous releases (2010 onward) | Michael (2010), Xscape (2014), subsequent compilations | Sony Music Entertainment, in partnership with the Michael Jackson Estate |
Sony Music and the Epic Records catalog
Jackson and his brothers left Motown for Epic Records, then part of CBS Records, in the mid-1970s, and Epic released every Jackson solo studio album from Off the Wall (1979) to Invincible (2001). Sony, which later bought CBS Records, has been the catalog's label home ever since. Variety describes Sony and its predecessor CBS as "the sole home for Jackson's recorded-music catalog for his entire solo career and the latter years of his career with the Jackson 5." variety.com
Being the label is not the same as owning the copyrights outright, and in Jackson's case the estate held a substantial ownership interest in the recordings. The California Court of Appeal's 2024 opinion in the estate's probate case notes that the businesses the executors were authorized to keep running in 2010 "control the rights to Michael's song recordings and musical compositions, among other things." courts.ca.gov Sony separately administers the estate's record catalog under a long-term recording agreement that took effect on January 1, 2018. variety.com
Thriller (1982) is one of the two biggest-selling albums of all time and was the first album certified 30-times platinum, though Variety cautions that such tallies "have become muddled in the streaming age." variety.com
The February 2024 Sony transaction
On February 9, 2024, Variety reported that Sony Music Group had completed a transaction to acquire half of Jackson's publishing and recorded masters, in a deal valuing the total catalog at around $1.2 billion "and possibly more," with Billboard putting Sony's payment at $600 million or more. The deal swept in assets from the Mijac publishing catalog but carved out royalties from the MJ Broadway musical and other theatrical productions. variety.com Forbes describes the same transaction as the sale of "half of Jackson's own music rights to Sony in 2024 for $600 million." forbes.com
It was not a clean sale to an outside buyer. The executors petitioned the Los Angeles probate court in November 2022 to approve transferring "a significant portion of the estate's assets to a joint venture between the estate and a third party, in exchange for a large cash payment and an interest in the joint venture." Katherine Jackson objected, the probate court overruled her, and on August 21, 2024 the California Court of Appeal affirmed. courts.ca.gov The deal closed while her appeal was pending, and estate filings say it left the executors with "effective control over Michael's music." rollingstone.com
Since February 2024 the Epic-era catalog has not belonged to Sony alone, or to the estate alone. They own it together.
The Motown / Universal catalog
The Jackson 5's recordings from 1969 to 1975 - including "I Want You Back," "ABC," "I'll Be There," and "Dancing Machine" - were made for Motown Records. Motown is today a Universal Music Group label, operating within UMG's Capitol Music Group; UMG's own label page lists the Jackson 5 among the Motown artists whose catalog it stewards. universalmusic.com
Mijac Music: the publishing catalog
Mijac Music is the publishing company Jackson founded in 1980. It holds his own compositions alongside catalogs he bought: the Sly and the Family Stone songs, the work of the Philadelphia soul team Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, and songs made famous by Ray Charles, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin. Sony/ATV, now Sony Music Publishing, has administered Mijac worldwide under a long-term extension announced in July 2017. variety.com
Mijac is separate from the Beatles catalog Jackson controlled through ATV Music. Sony/ATV was created in 1995 as a joint venture combining Sony's publishing arm with Jackson's ATV Music; in 2016 Sony acquired the Michael Jackson Estate's 50% share, making it a wholly owned Sony company, and the business took the Sony Music Publishing name in 2021. sonymusicpub.com Forbes puts the price of that 2016 sale at $750 million. forbes.com
Mijac itself was not part of the 2016 sale, but it did not stay wholly with the estate. Primary Wave Music holds a 10% stake in Jackson's publishing assets, and the remainder is now shared between the estate and Sony following the February 2024 transaction, which Variety reported included Mijac assets. variety.com
Masters
Epic era (1979-2001): Sony Music Entertainment and the Michael Jackson Estate, since Sony bought half of Jackson's recorded masters in February 2024
Motown era (1969-1975): Universal Music Group
Posthumous: Sony + Michael Jackson Estate (joint venture)
Publishing
Mijac Music: Shared by the Michael Jackson Estate and Sony since February 2024, with Primary Wave holding 10% of Jackson's publishing assets. Administered by Sony Music Publishing
Beatles catalog (ATV/Sony/ATV): Wholly Sony-owned since 2016, when the Estate sold its 50% share. Renamed Sony Music Publishing in 2021
Co-writers' shares: Held and administered by their own publishers
The Michael Jackson Estate
Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009. His 2002 will, admitted to probate in August 2009, gave his entire estate to the Michael Jackson Family Trust and named John Branca, his long-time entertainment attorney, and the music executive John McClain as executors and trustees. The trust's principal beneficiaries are his three children - Prince, Paris and Bigi - together with unnamed charities; his mother, Katherine Jackson, is a life beneficiary of a sub-trust. courts.ca.gov The estate is still in probate, held open largely by a long-running tax dispute with the IRS. rollingstone.com
McClain died on May 26, 2026, aged 71, leaving Branca as the surviving executor. people.com The business they built has been extraordinarily lucrative: writing in April 2026, Forbes estimated that the estate has earned more than $3.5 billion since Jackson's death and that its ancillary businesses brought in about $105 million in 2025. Forbes also reports that Paris Jackson has an ongoing lawsuit against the executors over their spending on the biopic. forbes.com
The name, image, and likeness
Jackson's name, image and likeness rights stayed with the estate through the Sony transaction. In filings reported by Rolling Stone, the estate's lawyer said the deal left the executors with the right to control "critical decisions" about Michael's name, image and likeness, and day-to-day control of his trademarks. rollingstone.com
Those rights are mostly licensed rather than litigated. MJ is a stage musical, not a film: the multiple Tony Award-winning production still runs on Broadway and internationally (mjthemusical.com), and Variety reported that its royalties, along with those of other theatrical productions, were deliberately carved out of the 2024 Sony deal (variety.com). Branca and McClain were credited producers on Michael, the 2026 Antoine Fuqua biopic, in which the estate is a co-investor with an estimated 25% profit participation, according to Forbes. forbes.com
Frequently asked questions
Did Michael Jackson own his own masters?
The terms of his CBS/Epic recording contracts have never been made public, so no one outside the parties can state the original split. What the record does show is that the estate's companies "control the rights to Michael's song recordings and musical compositions" (courts.ca.gov), and that in February 2024 the estate sold half of those masters, plus half of its publishing, to Sony for a reported $600 million (variety.com).
Who owns the Beatles catalog now?
Sony. Sony/ATV, the joint venture formed in 1995 around Jackson's ATV Music holdings, became a wholly owned Sony company in 2016 when Sony acquired the Michael Jackson Estate's 50% share, and it was renamed Sony Music Publishing in 2021 (sonymusicpub.com). Forbes puts the 2016 price at $750 million (forbes.com).
Who controls the Michael Jackson Estate?
John Branca. He and John McClain were named co-executors and co-trustees in Jackson's 2002 will (forbes.com); McClain died on May 26, 2026, aged 71 (people.com). The trust's principal beneficiaries are Jackson's three children - Michael Joseph Jr. (Prince), Paris and Bigi - along with unnamed charities, with Katherine Jackson a life beneficiary of a sub-trust (courts.ca.gov).
How much is the Michael Jackson catalog worth?
The February 2024 Sony transaction implied a value of around $1.2 billion for Jackson's recorded masters and publishing combined (variety.com). For the estate as a whole, the probate court found in the proceedings over that deal that what began as "nothing but debt and substantial ongoing obligations" had been "turned into a $2 billion estate" (rollingstone.com).
The bottom line
- The Epic-era masters are no longer Sony's alone. In February 2024 Sony bought half of Jackson's recorded masters and publishing from the estate for a reported $600 million, in a deal valuing the whole catalog at around $1.2 billion.
- That transaction was structured as a joint venture between the estate and Sony. The California Court of Appeal upheld it on August 21, 2024 over Katherine Jackson's objection, and the estate says it kept effective control of the music.
- The Jackson 5's 1969-1975 Motown recordings sit with Universal Music Group.
- Mijac Music, the publishing company Jackson founded in 1980, is now shared between the estate and Sony, with Primary Wave holding 10% of Jackson's publishing assets. Sony Music Publishing administers it.
- The estate's 50% of Sony/ATV, which held the Beatles catalog, went to Sony in 2016 for a reported $750 million. That company is now Sony Music Publishing.
- Name, image and likeness rights stayed with the estate. Co-executor John McClain died on May 26, 2026; John Branca continues as executor.