A SOUR NOTE HOW DO ARTISTS LIKE THE BEACH BOYS AND OTHERS LOSE THE RIGHTS TO THEIR SONGS THAT ARE NOW WORTH MILLIONS?

Byline: Marla Matzer Rose Staff Writer

In the soap opera-ish saga ``The Beach Boys: An American Family,'' the KABC (Channel 7) movie airing tonight and Monday, one of the saddest momentscomes at the very end. We learn that the band's music publishing rights sold in 1969 for $700,000 by Murry Wilson, father of Brian, Carl and Dennis, are now worth an estimated $75 million.

Of course that figure may be pegged at the high end for dramatic effect. Other estimates of the value of the song catalog, still owned by Rondor Music, co-owned by former Tijuana Brass frontman Herb Alpert, are in the $25 million range.

``American Family'' Executive Producer Neil Meron admits he's not sure who came up with the estimate, or how.

Regardless, the rise in value is staggering and spotlights the lucrative business of music publishing. And generally singer-songwriters have often not shared in these profits over the years.

``There are two big reasons why publishing rights became so valuable . . . beginning in the 1980s,'' said Les Bider, Chairman and chief executive of publishing giant Warner/Chappell Music, which is owned by Time Warner.

One is the technology explosion that resulted in music being used in a wide array of things such as gifts and games and the other is increased use of music on film and television soundtracks.

``The song plugging of the `90s became putting songs in films and TV shows,'' Bider said.

Industry watchers say the trend toward pop music-heavy movies started with George Lucas' ``American Grafitti'' and it's still gaining momentum.

Del Bryant, senior vice president of performing rights for music industry organization BMI, said the extension of copyright terms, as well as a dramatic increase in the amount the publisher and writer of a song are paid for individual tapes and CDs, has also fueled the boom in publishing values.

``There's an expression in the business: Never sell a song,'' said Don Passman, a music industry attorney and author of ``All You Need to Know About the Music Business.''

Unfortunately, many songwriters didn't know, didn't listen or unwisely put their trust in others when it came to publishing.

Among the best-known examples of songwriters not owning their publishing rights are the Beatle's Lennon and McCartney. Michael Jackson bought those publishing rights in the 1980s and licensed the songs for use in TV commercials.

And John Fogerty did not perform the hits he wrote for Creedence Clearwater Revival for years because of his bitterness over losing the publishing rights to those songs.

Even big media firms, which should have known better, have sold off impressive music holdings. The list includes CBS, 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

Why would they do this?

``They need the money, and they don't see it as their core business,'' Passman said, ``but everyone who's sold it has been sorry.''

Sometimes the gaffes can be embarrassing.

After Fox sold its catalog to Warner Bros. in the early 1980s it discovered that it had sold its own theme music, the short herald heard as the Fox logo appears at the front of films. Fox had to strike an agreement with Warner to be able to use the theme.

To a certain extent a song portfolio is worth what ever the market will bear. But some industry standards do apply.

According to music attorney Jay Cooper, most catalogs sell for a multiple of eight to 12 times yearly revenues to the publisher. That is, if the publisher's yearly take - after paying the song's writer - is $1 million, then the catalog would normally sell for roughly $8 million to $12 million.

There are, however, many variables. They include whether a catalog is ``dead'' (the Beach Boys' isn't: It's still very active in terms of airplay, commercial use, etc.) and how desirable the songs are.

Industry sources say Rondor, one of the last big independent catalogs, is now for sale. In addition to such Beach Boys tunes as ``Good Vibrations'' and ``Help Me, Rhonda,'' Rondor's holdings include hits by such artists as Steve Winwood, Tom Petty, Aerosmith and Melissa Ethridge. It's the main reason why the company is reportedly seeking more than half a billion dollars from prospective buyers.

Rondor President Lance Freed did not return calls seeking comment.

Unlike a lot of bands, the Beach Boys started out with more of an edge in the music business. While abusive and manipulative, Murry Wilson had music business aspirations of his own. And he was fairly savvy.

Rather than selling the Beach Boys' publishing rights to someone else, he set up Sea of Tunes as the owner. The he installed himself and Brian as the Sea of Tunes owners.

According to the TV movie, and the surviving Beach Boys, he eventually bullied and pressured Brian into letting him take full control of those rights. He then struck a deal with Rondor without telling Brian, apparently thinking that the future earnings of the Beach Boys catalog weren't all that promising.

At that time, the late 1960s, the group seemed on the wane as musical tastes had shifted to harder edged acts such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. The Beach Boys were even replaced by the Beatles and other hot groups at their own record label, Capitol.

Bryant, the BMI executive who is also the son of well-known songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who retained their publishing rights, said ``You never really know that a song is going to become a standard . . . what songs will survive and become part of Americana. I'm sure Murry Wilson didn't realize we'd still be talking about the Beach Boys today.''

Others agree.

``Almost nobody had the vision that rock 'n' roll would stay; it was a hit-driven business,'' said Bruce Haring, author of ``Off the Charts: Ruthless Days and Reckless Nights Inside the Music Industry'' and the just-released ``Beyond the Charts: MP3 and the Digital Music Revolution.''

Ironically, Haring said, publishing, long considered a ``dull backwater'' of the record business, may turn out to be the most valuable part in the Internet era.

``I see the value of master recordings themselves (usually owned by the releasing record label) eroding as digital pirating becomes more and more rampant while licensing to film, TV, legitimate online uses and commercials becomes more prevalent, benefiting the publishers,'' Haring said.

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Traci Wooden and Gregg Miller/Staff Artists