Industry Exclusive: The Story of Music Publisher Martin Bandier and His Tempting Broadway Opportunity

What do the Beatles, Dylan, Sting, Stones, Beyoncé, Gaga, Madonna, the Taylors (Swift and James), Queen, Elvis, Bowie, Pink, Adele, the Monkees and Snoop Dog all have in common?

Their songs are published by Sony/ATV Music Chairman, Martin Bandier. He also publishes landmark movie soundtracks like Singin' In the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and Goldfinger. By virtue of the fact Bandier controls the songs of Carole King, Leiber & Stoller, The Four Seasons and Abba, his copyrights power the mega-Broadway musicals Beautiful, Smokey Joe's Café, Jersey Boys and Mama Mia. In fact, Sony/ATV is the repository of more than three million songs that make the whole world sing.

After attending a backer's audition earlier this year of Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations, Sony/ATV provided some seed money to get the show on its feet. Then last week, in search of the next Broadway pot o' gold, Bandier winged west to bucolic Berkley, California, accompanied by Sony/ATV co-President Danny Strick and a coterie of licensing and finance experts. The Sony team were there to experience a fully realized production of The Temptations musical, currently running until November 5th at the prestigious Berkley Repertory Theatre.

Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations comes with an impressive pedigree. Directed by Tony Award winner, Des McAnuff (Big River, The Who's Tommy, Jersey Boys) with choreographer Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys, The Addams Family, On Your Feet! The Emilio and Gloria Estefan Musical) paying homage to legendary Motown staffer Cholly Atkins fleet-footed Motor City dance moves. Orchestrator Harold Wheeler and Music director/arranger Kenny Seymour have supercharged the Temps catalog of immortal hits with the vitality of today, yet still referencing those AM radio memories of the mid '60's. Motown's endless procession of R&B superstars and songwriters not only flooded the airwaves, but also contributed towards an easing of long-held racial divides in the country. Label founder Berry Gordy, Jr. called Motown music, "The Sound of Young America" and indeed it was embraced by every teenager on the planet, irrespective of skin color.

The Temptations greatest songs were largely composed by Motown staff writers like Smokey Robinson and Norman Whitfield. Today, those indelible hits are controlled by Martin Bandier, who has ruled the roost at Sony/ATV since 2007, building it into the largest, most financially prosperous publishing company in the world. One could say he's the Shaquille O'Neal of the profession. Just as Shaq completely dominated the basketball court in his era, Bandier has not only dominated the publishing field for over four-decades, but his influence is so pervasive that he's actually mentored his competitors, who today head the other major publishing houses.

With his distinctive combed-back white hair, a gaze that is simultaneously steely and warm, and his trademark Coheba Cigar in hand, Bandier's reputation as a tough but fair negotiator precedes him whenever he enters the room to deal. He's known throughout the industry as a man of his word. Prior to heading Sony, Bandier spent 16 years turning EMI Music Publishing into a global behemoth. In a historic transaction so complex they'll be teaching courses about it at Harvard Business School (or Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music / Bandier Program) for decades to come, in 2012, Sony/ATV and EMI joined forces, reuniting Bandier with the many world-class song catalogs he'd left behind when he took over Sony.

Historically, music publishers have been the bridge between artistic creativity and financial interest. They are often the first to recognize nascent talent, bringing it to the attention of record labels and music producers. Yet even by those who should be in the know, music publishing remains one of the least understood, yet most important, aspects of the entire music business. What it means in layman's terms is that whenever you turn on your car radio, at any time of day or night, whatever song happens to be playing at that moment, in any country in the world, there's a strong likelihood Mr. Bandier controls some percentage of what you're listening to!

A bit of music business history may be useful to shed light on why music publishers and record label executives are cautious but still game to invest in Broadway musicals. In 1957, the visionary head of Columbia Records was a man named Goddard Leiberson- an erudite, urbane gentleman with a passion for musical theater. The Columbia label was a division of the Columbia Broadcasting Systems aka CBS, or as it was known in the industry, "The Tiffany Network." Lieberson convinced his legendary boss, CBS President William S. Paley, to become the sole backer of the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady, a $500,000 investment which subsequently earned the company untold millions. In addition to being a savvy label executive, Leiberson also produced the Broadway cast albums to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, South Pacific, Kiss Me Kate, Bells Are Ringing, Candide, West Side Story, Flower Drum Song, Gypsy, I Can Get It For You Wholesale (the show where Mr. Lieberson first came across a young singer/actress named Barbra Streisand, who he later signed to a solo recording contract) and, of course, My Fair Lady. Even towards the end of a lengthy career, his belief in Broadway musicals never wavered. The final cast album Lieberson produced was A Chorus Line. (A man of no small ego, Goddard Lieberson's correspondence with the leading lights of theatre, motion pictures, literature, and classical music was compiled into a self-published book titled "Letters from God").

In the mid-1990's when Martin Bandier was Chairman of EMI Music Publishing, he spent several years pursuing Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., trying to convince the living legend to sell his song publishing catalog Jobet Music to EMI. Like all publishers, Gordy considered his songs in the same way parents think of their children. He guarded them with his life. However, with Bandier's pledge that "Berry's kids would be well protected," in 1997, Gordy agreed to sell him half the company. Bandier was quoted in the NY Times as saying, "This acquisition is the highlight of my career." Since then, the publishing titan has added many other "career highlights" to his credit, but his love of Motown's barrier-breaking catalog and his unreserved respect for Gordy has remained constant. When Sony/ATV merged with EMI, the Motown catalog, featuring the greatest hits by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandella's, the Jackson 5 and of course... as the marquee boasts, "the greatest R&B group of all time"- The Temptations was part of the package.

And that is how, under Bandier's leadership, Sony/ATV owns every song performed in Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations. A publisher's goal is to maximize the value of their copyrights. Beyond the hit records themselves, Sony/ATV seeks to license their songs for use in movies, TV shows, Broadway scores, advertisements, video games, theme parks... basically, wherever music is either featured or simply provides the glue to support any scene, activity or product imaginable.

There are essentially two ways songwriters and music publishers make money. "Mechanical" income is the term used to describe revenue generated by sales, i.e., someone buys a CD or downloads an individual song or album online. "Performance" income is generated anywhere a song is heard - on your radio, streamed on your laptop computer, at a concert, bar, restaurant, the Super Bowl or your local bowling alley. How this income is collected and divvied up depends upon how many writers and publishers there are on any given song. In an ever-changing technological ecosystem, the one constant Martin Bandier understands better than most, is no matter whether you're listening to -- AM, FM, Sirius, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, a CD, LP, an iPhone, iPod or two frozen orange juice cans connected by a piece of string -- it's always about the music. Crooners, rockers and rappers all depend on Marty to ensure they're being fairly compensated for their work.

Although Bandier doesn't recall growing up in a household filled with music, by the time he was a teenager, he had good fortune of seeing some of the greatest Broadway musicals ever produced, all with their original casts. At dinner before the show I asked Marty when the Broadway bug bit him? A smile crossed his lips when he said, "I vividly remember seeing Ethel Merman in Gypsy, Yul Brynner in The King and I, Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees, Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence in West Side Story, Robert Preston and Barbara Cook in The Music Man and Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. They were the kind of shows where you walked out of the theatre literally humming the score. It really was a magical time." Little did young Marty know that he was actually in-training to recognize the value in evergreen copyrights - the ones that play that instantly familiar melody, "Ka-ching!"

Now back to Berkley... As Marty, Danny and company settled into their seats on a balmy late-September evening, they had one overarching thought in mind... is this show a hit or miss? For Bandier and Sony, it's an enviable win-win situation. With no further investment in the show, if it's a hit, the company will still fill its coffers every night the curtain rises on Broadway or any stage in the world. And then there's the cast album, which could earn millions. However, if the spirit of Lieberson whispers in Marty's ear and he risks another chunk of change on the actual production, then based on the show's success, Sony would stand to rake in a percentage of the box-office too. Decisions, decisions.

With a dynamic cast headed by Derrick Baskin (group founder Otis Williams), Ephraim Sykes (lead singer David Ruffin), Jeremy Pope (lead singer Eddie Kendricks), Jared Joseph and James Harkness (group members Melvyn Franklin and Paul Williams), superb sets and stage design, and a score where literally every song has long been embedded into our collective consciousness, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations, might best be described as an audience pleaser. The book is essentially narrated by Otis Williams, who looks back on the formation, struggles and successes of his group. We learn that Williams was the voice of reason, holding together a dynamic but unruly group, rife with expanding egos fueled by drink, drugs and distrust. Each of their interpersonal peaks and valleys are artfully punctuated by the Temps immortal hits. When Williams regretfully describes how his commitment to the road deprived him of the chance to truly know his only son, we're treated to writer/producer/arranger Norman Whitfield's classic, "Papa Was A Rolling Stone". When drugs begin taking their toll on the gifted but troubled lead singer David Ruffin, the group sings "Cloud Nine". When civil rights and the Detroit riots dominate the headlines, the group sings "Ball of Confusion." Songs like "My Girl," "I Can't Get Next To You," "Get Ready," "Ain't That Peculiar," "Just My Imagination," "The Way You Do The Things You Do," "Since I Lost My Baby," and of course, the title song, "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" are all seamlessly contextualized into the Temptations historical timeline.

As the evening unfolded, each time another hit song was introduced, I glanced at Marty silently bobbing his head in approval, like a dad watching his kid round the bases at a little league game. After the show he commented how cleverly the unaltered lyrics were able to convey the essence of each plot point. If the Berkley audience's ecstatic reaction was any indication, the Temptations could be headed to Broadway in 2018. Still, an investor has to judge a show in two related yet separate frames of mind. First, they must shed any preconceptions, word-of-mouth or any "intellectualizing". Inevitably thoughts begin to reverberate in one's brain, "Sure, they'll love it in [name the city], but will it play with the Bridge and Tunnel crowd in Manhattan?" The show either moves you or it doesn't. As the audience tonight filtered out into the street after the show, the buzz was palpable... they loved it! The other side of the investor coin is more pragmatic - a calculation of risk tolerance informed by the show's budget, running costs, breakeven, weekly nut, theatre availability, potential for roadshows -- summer stock, colleges and high school performances -- and several other factors. As a savvy investor, Bandier knows that 75% of shows lose money, but the ones that connect can add some meaningful zeros to the bottom line.

In ways that only the super successful truly understand, Martin Bandier is the ultimate poker player. His always friendly demeanor is not necessarily an accurate gauge of what he's really thinking...and then again, it might be. His uncanny read of the big picture has kept him at the top, while one-time wheeler-dealers half his age have fallen by the wayside in the face of a changing industry. Is he rooting for the success of Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations? That would be a big 100% yes. Will he take the gamble... go for another round at the table? His inscrutable facade is perhaps the key to his genius. He reveals no "tells." Still, on the ride back to the hotel Marty said, "It's just amazing how durable these songs are. You can be sixty or six... every generation rediscovers them." For a man who could spend his days putting on his private green or cruising the Caribbean, Marty still has the fire and desire to see his "children" grow and prosper. I asked him why. He explained, "I don't feel like I come in to 'work'...on most days I'm having fun. I guess I'm basically a fan at heart. I mean in what other job do you get to rub shoulders with Sting, Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga in a single week? It's an amazing pleasure and honor to have the chance to make even a small contribution to lives of these fantastically creative people. Music permeates every aspect of our lives... these songs will live forever." He self-deprecatingly stated, "I mean, I can barely carry a tune!" But then ever the publisher he added, "And to quote the great Smokey Robinson, "Ain't that peculiar?'"