Company Auctioning Rights to Songs By Aerosmith, Underwood, Starr

SongVest, a Wisconsin-based company, has figured out a new way to make money off old songs: Auctioning a portion of the rights of tracks by Aerosmith, Ringo Starr, Ozzy Osbourne, Carrie Underwood and others to fans of the music. In addition to claiming ownership, the winner will also collect royalties from the track, which SongVest will handle for you. The fall '08 auction features former hit songs like All-4-One's "I Swear" and the Monkees' theme song, as well as Aerosmith's "Gotta Love It" and Carrie Underwood's "I Ain't in Checotah Anymore." SongVest's first auction went down last year, with buyers spending $25,000 for a 25% interest in two songs by Christian metalheads Stryper. "No one is buying records. This to me is just another angle," says songwriter Mark Hudson, whose songs for Ozzy Osbourne ("Denial") and Ringo Starr ("Never Without You") will also feature in the upcoming auction.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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