Michael Jackson died $500 MILLION in debt in 2009. His estate has earned $3.5 BILLION since and he is still the highest paid musician on earth. > When Jackson died in 2009 creditors were circling and banks were preparing to seize his assets. > His most valuable possession was not his music. It was a decision he made in 1985. > He paid $47.5 MILLION for the ATV Music catalog. > Inside it were the publishing rights to over 4,000 songs including most of The Beatles’ entire catalog. > Paul McCartney had introduced Jackson to the power of music publishing years earlier. > He then watched Jackson use that knowledge to outbid him for the Beatles catalog. > Jackson’s estate paid off every dollar of his $500 MILLION debt using that catalog as leverage. > In 2016 Sony paid the estate $750 MILLION for the ATV stake alone. > In 2024 Sony paid another $600 MILLION for half of his personal masters and publishing rights. > His own mother opposed the deal saying it went against his wishes. The estate sold it anyway. > In 2023 he earned $105 MILLION. More than any living musician in the United States that year. > MJ The Musical is running on Broadway. > Cirque du Soleil has been running a Michael Jackson show in Vegas since 2013. > A biopic starring his nephew premiered in 2026. > An estate lawyer told Forbes: “When it comes to estate earnings it’s MJ, then an enormous canyon, then everybody else.” > He paid $47.5 MILLION for the rights in 1985. Sony has paid $1.3 BILLION to get them back. He has been dead longer than most artists are famous and is still outearning all of them.