Dolly Parton Making a Fortune Off Whitney Houston's Death
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 02.14.2012
"I Will Always Love You" will be big for Dolly...
Dolly Parton may not be happy Whitney Houston has passed, but she's set to make some big money off of it. "I Will Always Love You" is expected to sell heavily, much as as many previous deceased celebrities have seen an increase in sales of their songs and Parton is the songwriter.
An insider noted that little of the proceeds will go to Whitney's estate. "She was broke — her label gave her advances," the source said. "And unlike Michael [Jackson], you have to remember that Whitney didn't write any of those massive hits. They were songs that Clive Davis told her to sing and she did."
The source added, "On records, the typical mechanical royalty paid to the writer/publisher is about 8 cents per radio performance. That would all go to Dolly. Whitney is only the singer. She receives an advance from the record company based upon anticipated album sales. Figure that's around $2.00 per album. But all of the costs to record the album, promote the album, videos, etc. are all recouped from the artist's share. Whitney was living off of advances — loans from the record company — and had been [for] quite some time. Most likely the estate owes the record company a ton and future sales will be used to pay back that loan before any money goes to the estate. The songwriters, however, will make a bundle."
