Whitney Houston

Dolly Parton turned down Elvis to keep ownership of her song

Elvis wanted to record "I Will Always Love You" but insisted on owning more than half of it, and Dolly refused. Because she kept the rights, Whitney Houston's later version earned her tens of millions in royalties in the '90s.

“Elvis wanted to buy it. So Elvis was like, I'll sing the song. And she's like, amazing. He's like, and I'll own over 50% of it. And she's like, I don't want to do that. Like, how about you sing the song and we'll do the normal, like, kind of, you know, whatever the rights breakdown normally is of the song creator versus the artist who sings it. And Elvis was like, no, no, I need to own most of it. I'm Elvis. I'm going to blow this thing up. And she turns him down.”

Steal thisDon't give away ownership of your best asset for distribution; license it on standard terms and keep the royalties.