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Former Worked in the Entertainment Industry Jun 21
On Nov.11, 1968, an agreement was signed by Jimmy Page, Peter Grant, and attorney Steven Weiss, with Atlantic Records President Ahmet Ertegun.
The contract was for three years (not five as initially reported) and was worth $104,000 US dollars per. In 2025, it would be worth $900K. An additional two years to the contract was added on the following year. Jimmy Page was the only member of the band to sign it, which as leader, allowed him to replace and/or play with anyone and call it Led Zeppelin.
The contract was extremely artist friendly, and was made sight unseen. Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun had never seen the band play before. The band had only done a handful of gigs in Europe recently as The New Yardbirds.
In later years, Wexler would joke that manager Peter Grant was so large and intimidating, he would have given him anything he wanted! But Grant would always rather talk first than intimidate. People have claimed that it was Atlantic’s success with Cream that made them attractive to Zeppelin, but you could make an argument that the label was already quite big by the late 60’s. Phil Carson, head of Atlantic International said that Ahmet Ertegun trusted Page. He knew that they were rewriting the rule book, and the product was going to be sensational. Page even had a hand in the mastering of the album, which was and still is practically unheard of for artists. The combination of Page, Grant, and Steven Weiss was impressive. Top notch band, top tier management, and one of the best music attorneys in the biz. Besides representing Vanilla Fudge, Weiss would go on to represent all of Swan Song Records including Bad Company from 1973 on.
The contract that Zeppelin signed with Atlantic Records in late 1968 included not just the biggest advance ever handed to a new group at that time, it also gave them unprecedented control over every aspect of their music and image. Epic Records, the label that Jimmy Page was signed to as a member of the Yardbirds was bitterly disappointed that Page and Grant went with Atlantic. Epic president Clive Davis was unaware that Page contractually was only signed to the label as a member of The Yardbirds. He was free to start any new ventures on his own. Besides, both Grant and Page had no confidence in Davis’ ability to market the new band without releasing singles. They both felt he wasn’t anticipating the market’s shift to FM radio and album-oriented music. Page and Grant also signed a separate music publishing deal with Warner Bros. Led Zeppelin’s music was published under SuperHype Ltd. which would be administered by Warner’s. Upon John Bonham’s passing in 1980, and Grant’s in 1995, the shares of Super Hype (notice the gap) and of Swan Song was passed to their respective heirs.
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