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How much is Stairway To Heaven worth?
Joe Bosso, Tue 24 Jun, 12:23 am BST


You know what is Led Zeppelin IV


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Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven is undeniably one of rock's classic
songs. But what does that mean on a monetary scale? in a recent
article, Conde Nast Portfolio did some numbers crunching, and the
figures are staggering.


Publishing royalties
Zeppelin hasn't licensed Stairway To Heaven for movies or commercials.
But songwriters Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and Warner/Chappell, the
song's publisher, pull royalties from record sales, radio plays and
live performances. Zeppelin has played Stairway at every performance
since 1971, yielding somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000 in
royalties. Everyone from Frank Zappa to the London Philharmonic has
also performed it, and when you take into account the plays it's
received at hundreds of thousands of proms, weddings and bar mitzvahs,
well, that's some serious money. (DJs and venues pay a small annual
fee for the right to play it.) Estimated gain: $400,000.


Royalties from album and DVD sales total about $8.6 million. Plus,
Stairway is a radio king, clocking something like 2,985,000 plays,
netting nearly $2 million. It's also thought to be the best-selling
piece of sheet music in rock history, with royalties of $1 million.
Estimated total: $12 million


The master recording
When Zeppelin and Atlantic Records sparred over the band's refusal to
release Stairway as a single, the public had no choice but to buy Led
Zeppelin IV. And they've bought Stairway on four different Zeppelin
albums, sales of which have earned Atlantic and the band $500 milion.
Throw in sales from DVDs and you've got another $48 million. And let's
not not forget the $2 million deal the group did with Verizon for full-
song downloads of Stairway - every time the track is clicked, that's
more money to Zeppelin.
Estimated total: $550 milion


Potential earnings
With the exception of the Verizon deal and licensing the song Rock And
Roll to Cadillac in 2002, Zeppelin have been notoriously cagey on
exploring other commercial opportunities. Advertising experts estimate
that Stairway could net as much as $8 million for just one campaign.
But if Zeppelin want to cash in, they should do before baby boomers
get too long in the tooth.


"If the target market is 45-plus, the song is extremely valuable,"
says Izzy DeBellis, executive creative director at Kirshenbaum Bond &
Partners. "It's associated with every last dance you ever had. Prom -
it was the make-out song."
Estimated total: $10 million or more


Value of Stairway To Heaven earnings thus far: $562 million
Value of potential licensing deals: $10 million and up
Total value of Stairway To Heaven: $572 million or more

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Je suis désolé pour les roles que j'ai joué dans toutes ces videos, ce n'est pas tres valorisant pour l'humanité mais si cela peut avoir fait progresser la science, alors il y aura eu un coté positif.

And I wouldn't give one pence for the pile of shit!

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Robert Record invented the equals sign.

wanker

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Trendmonger is a waste of space.

I happen to agree with the Welsh fellow; Stairway is a pretty boring song, and personally I think we'd all be better off listening to 'Hairway to Steven'.

I posted it for Gail.

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Je suis désolé pour les roles que j'ai joué dans toutes ces videos, ce n'est pas tres valorisant pour l'humanité mais si cela peut avoir fait progresser la science, alors il y aura eu un coté positif.

i still think its a good song...probably not a song you should play all the time though ...

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There WILL come a time when everybody in the world they will be free to sing and dance and love : )

TUT TUT.

What a repost there.

No fuckwit, The song is The most overated, boring pile of shit second only to Hotel California.

Bat out of hell and Bohemian Rhapsody are more to your liking I take it?

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Robert Record invented the equals sign.

I'll pay them a hundred bucks if I NEVER have to hear it again.

_________________

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Je suis désolé pour les roles que j'ai joué dans toutes ces videos, ce n'est pas tres valorisant pour l'humanité mais si cela peut avoir fait progresser la science, alors il y aura eu un coté positif.

page/plant collected 0.127¢ from me for best band plus 0.00081¢ for the '88 vermont show

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Enough to pay a slice of paper to roll a joint

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Je suis désolé pour les roles que j'ai joué dans toutes ces videos, ce n'est pas tres valorisant pour l'humanité mais si cela peut avoir fait progresser la science, alors il y aura eu un coté positif.

[/quote]Welsh man Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 6:51 am Post subject:

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And I wouldn't give one pence for the pile of shit!

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There are 3 things in life that smell like fish..
..one of them is fish

_________________
Robert Record invented the equals sign.

Interesting, what's the arithmetic for this?

I was going to say Maths, but there is another word used in the US called Math.

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A Blanket in my Muesli. A Blanket in my what??

He's a CEO for Chrissakes!

I used to like Stairway to Heaven. When it first came out. Way way way overplayed "classic".

I agree it's not their best song, not even the best on the album but a pile of shit?

That's just like a film reviewer who, when reviewing the universally thought of film of the decade says "well I think it was rubbish" - just trying to make a name for himself by being provocative. There's always one reviewer that does this, like it makes him so special.

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Trendmonger is a waste of space.

Maybe people who have a problem with Stairway To Heaven being overplayed listened to radio a lot or something. I've never been a big radio listener. I could never handle the fact that certain tunes got overplayed, and I also have no time for radio ads and the fact that a significant percentage of the music is crap that I don't want to listen to even once.

With Stairway To Heaven, I probably overplayed it myself to start with, but then I've done that with a lot of other stuff too, including FZ's music. During the last five years I've been coming back to a lot of the music that I listened to when I was younger and got out of touch with for a while for one reason or another.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

How much is "Dog Breath" worth??

Kid Zeppelin - UNCUT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQNgYeKVHQ

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Je suis désolé pour les roles que j'ai joué dans toutes ces videos, ce n'est pas tres valorisant pour l'humanité mais si cela peut avoir fait progresser la science, alors il y aura eu un coté positif.

I do not even need to own a radio to be bored with it. As it is not always possible to choose what I listen to, there is always someone to put that track on or to play it. Then most people will just sing it along as soon as they hear it.

This is the only track I would systematically skip on a FZ album.

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Lesser-evilism is war.

Senior Legal Analyst Time And Will They Will Ascend The Stairway To Heaven…Again?

https://normangoldman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NG_10-02-18_BTN-8mins30secs-.mp3

In 2015, a copyright infringement lawsuit was filed in federal court, alleging a key chord pattern in the massive Led Zeppelin hit ‘Stairway To Heaven’ had been stolen from a prior song and a different band. The trial was in 2017 and resulted in a jury verdict for the Led Zeppelin songwriters. That did not sit well with the plaintiff, who had sued alleging infringement, and an appeal followed. The Court of Appeal has now ruled, and a reversal has occurred. The Court of Appeal did not like how the trial judge handled the case. A new trial looms and we’ll explore the issues today, when it’s Senior Legal Analyst time, Beyond The Norm!

And, here are three great links!

http://www.startribune.com/jury-verdict ... 494630641/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/guymartin/ ... edcf5a77c2

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/o ... -56057.pdf

Sure they stole the intro from Taurus, but at this point what's it matter? If LZ are found guilty what's the worst thing that could happen? Very little at this point.

Same tempo, same key, same position in both songs. Both groups toured together briefly. Zep have an incredible history of songwriting credits being omitted and entire passages lifted. Not much of a leap to have a band on the rise writing their 4th album with 90% of StH already written but the opening. How do we introduce the song? Let me go through my stacks of records for to get someone else's idea of an opening. Change one or two notes and presto! Who will the court believe, the big rock group or the nobodies?

Now, could the same be said of stealing Zep's music? Not if their lawyers have any say. Could I for example take the intro of Zep's Black Dog and add or subtract a note here and there and claim it as my own? Hardly. Same goes for lyrics. Could I publish a new song without fear of litigation using the opening lyric of StH as long as I change the tempo, and sing "woman" instead of "lady"? It's all very confusing

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Supposedly, Randy California wasn't after money he just wanted a songwriting credit (which would
have lead to money anyways) on Stairway to Heaven.

Stairway to Heaven isn't a note-by-note copy of Taurus, but it is very similar in its chord progression.
Is that enough to prove it was a deliberate attempt by Zeppelin to steal the song?

Randy California contended that Jimmy Page often watched their sets (Spirit opened for
Led Zeppelin in 1969 at some shows) and their song "Fresh Garbage" wound up in their
set in an instrumental form. Not sure if that was ever an issue with Spirit.

What I've learned is that at the first trial the jury never even got to hear Taurus to
make a comparison to Stairway to Heaven. I agree that another trial is needed and
the jury needs to hear all the evidence. We'll see what happens.

Worth a listen . . . https://normangoldman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NG_10-02-18_BTN-8mins30secs-.mp3

California wanted to settle for one dollar, plus a writing credit.

The judge disallowed the playing of the album for the jury.

Reversed on appeal, due to erroneous jury instructions.