IDEA KEEPS STAR ROLLING IN ROYALTIES
The Guardian
By Emma Brockes
July 1999
Two years ago, David Bowie struck
a deal on Wall Street that brought him $55 million overnight and a credibility
among bankers he was never likely to achieve as Ziggy Stardust.
The "Bowie Bonds" were a radical innovation: shares sold in Bowie's talent, namely the projected royalties of his first 25 albums in the next 15 years. He had, in effect, floated himself on the stock exchange and, with this, gained greater control of his royalties.
Bowie got the applause, but the man behind the deal was a 36-year-old broker who has just pulled off the same trick for James Brown --- this time to the tune of $100 million. His name is David Pullman, he comes from New York, and he has a flair for drama to rival that of his clients.
"Your dad wants you to be a doctor because he says business is bad; your mom wants you to be an attorney because she'd like to divorce her husband. I wanted something bigger," Pullman said.
"After I was in Time magazine, my third-grade teacher called to say, "Is that the same David Pullman? I knew you'd be the one to succeed."
Pullman looks like Jerry Seinfeld, talks like a machine gun and, while modest he ain't, his boasting recalls that of the class nerd who grows up to be hugely successful but never quite believes it.
"When we struck the Bowie deal, we didn't even know if it would work," he said. "But the first lesson of success is that you mustn't be afraid to fail. Bowie never once rang to say if there were problems. The same with James Brown. They look you in the eye and, within 60 seconds, they get the concept. Everyone thought I was crazy when I first did the deal; now they're all at it."
It is the intellectual property market --- an estimated $1 trillion field that deals in nontangible assets like royalties. The idea came to Pullman when Bowie's manager approached him with the aim of selling his publishing rights. Pullman had a better idea: Why not keep the rights and float bonds backed by Bowie's future earnings?
"It was pro-creator, pro-artist, because it let them keep the copyright," Pullman said. "The artists loved it. They'd say, 'I wish I'd met you years ago. It's about time there was someone on our side.'"
Pullman charges a 10 percent commission and, before doing anything, sends in the auditors whether his clients are being defrauded.
"Most artists are lazy," he said. "They complain a lot, but they aren't disciplined enough to audit their accounts. So we send in the best."
It's a hard line he also takes with his staff, snapping down the phone as they ring in at 15-minute intervals. "You got the message this morning? And have you done anything about it? That was four hours ago. This is unacceptable. Have you phoned Mandy? Have you phoned Mandy? You're not listening to me: I said, 'Have you phoned Mandy?'"
He bands down the phone. "Someone I should have fired," he says.
The Pullman Group gets 1,000 inquiries a year, but it's rare that an artist has the status to secure the deal: Iron Maiden has done it, and the songwriters behind 40 percent of Motown's hits --- Holland-Dozier-Holland. For once, old age increases the artist's values.
"James Brown was 66 when his agents approached us," Pullman said. "Our catalogs are typically 20, 30, 40 years old. If a song is producing money from 1966 to 1999, the odds are it's going to continue to produce."
Pullman gets on well with the artists because he says he understands them. His first ambition was to go to art school, and he likes the glitz of rubbing shoulders with legends. "There are similarities between the sharpness in eye of someone who's an artist, and of one who's a top businessman."
It would all be very wearing if he took himself too seriously. But he doesn't. There is a "family" crest on the company Web site, a medley of lions and harps that turns out to be cribbed from the Pullman coach company.
The phone rings again. It's New York. "Did you update the Web site?" he asks. "No, not the photo of James Brown. Just the one of me."