Wilson Pickett Estate Partners With Primary Wave for Publishing and Name, Image & Likeness Rights
The estate of Wilson Pickett has struck a partnership with Primary Wave Music covering a stake in the late singer's music publishing catalog and his name, image, and likeness rights, the companies announced on Wednesday, September 2. Financial terms were not disclosed. Music Business Worldwide
Primary Wave, a New York-based music publisher and catalog investor, will share in the rights to Pickett's name, image, and likeness — the commercial right to use an artist's identity in advertising, merchandising, and branding. The deal also gives the Pickett estate access to Primary Wave's marketing team and publishing infrastructure for new marketing, branding, digital, sync, and film/television opportunities. Sync, short for synchronisation, is the licensing of music for use in film, television, advertising, and other visual media.
Wilson Pickett, who died on January 19, 2006, at the age of 64, was one of the defining voices of Southern soul. He recorded more than 50 songs that reached the US R&B charts across a career spanning four decades. He was a five-time Grammy nominee and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
Among the songs tied to the deal is In the Midnight Hour, co-written by Pickett with Steve Cropper and released as a single in 1965. It reached No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, the weekly US singles chart. The song was later selected for the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. Primary Wave
Mustang Sally, released by Pickett in 1966, reached No. 6 on the R&B chart and No. 23 on the Hot 100, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000. Land of 1000 Dances, also issued in 1966, became Pickett's third R&B No. 1 and peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100 — his highest placement on the pop chart.
The Pickett catalog connects to an asset Primary Wave already holds. The company acquired Steve Cropper's publishing catalog in 2016. Music Business Worldwide Cropper, a guitarist and songwriter who played on many of Pickett's recordings at Stax Records, also co-wrote "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" with Otis Redding and "Knock on Wood" with Eddie Floyd. Primary Wave
Max Pickett, Wilson Pickett's brother, was quoted in the announcement supporting the deal. David Weitzman, a partner at Primary Wave, was also quoted about the partnership with the Pickett family. Music Business Worldwide
Primary Wave has built its business around acquiring stakes in legacy catalogs, pairing ownership with active marketing to place older music in film, television, and brand campaigns. For the Pickett estate, the arrangement offers the infrastructure to pursue those placements; for Primary Wave, it adds a songwriting catalog that sits alongside the Cropper catalog the firm already controls.
