Primary Wave Music Publishing Acquires Interest in Sly & the Family Stone Catalog

By Variety Staff

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Update: The Estate of Michael Jackson disputes the announcement made by Primary Wave concerning Sly Stone copyrights. The company has issued a statement that reads: “The Sly & The Family Stone’s classic song copyrights are owned by Mijac Music, which is part of the Estate of Michael Jackson, and is administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which handles all licensing requests.”

Music Publishing has acquired an interest in the Sly & the Family Stone music catalog, the company announced today. The deal includes all music assets of Even St. Productions, which covers music publishing and master royalty streams of all songs written by Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone) including the hits “Everyday People,” Thank You,” “Dance To The Music,” and “Family Affair.”

The influential R&B group first broke out in 1968 with the release of “Dance To The Music.” Helping introduce funk to the masses, Sly and the Family Stone also released No. 1 songs “Everyday People,” “Family Affair,” “Stand!” and “Hot Fun In the Summertime,” “among others. Often sampled, Sly’s songs defined the sound of an era and informed future music by Prince, Public Enemy, The Roots and OutKast.”

In 2015, a Los Angeles jury awarded $5 million to Stone in a breach-of-contract suit against his business partners. Jurors found that Stone’s ex-manager Gerald Goldstein, attorney Glenn Stone and the company Even Street Productions owed him royalties.

Primary Wave Music Publishing was founded in 2006 and is home to copyrights of more than 15,000 songs by the likes of Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson, Kurt Cobain, Aerosmith, John Lennon, Def Leppard, Hall & Oates, Chicago and Melissa Etheridge. With more than 70 employees, Primary Wave has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Austin.