When working to maintain a positive reputation within the
music industry, many people see all that can go wrong. Whether you’re an artist
and a manager, you have to make sure that you are handling things the proper
way so that you can avoid any and all lawsuits that can be brought against you.
Many times, artists can be taken advantage of without even being fully aware of
the situation until it’s already to late. Some things that artists many come in
contact with is not being able to receive the royalties that they are entitled
to fro the work that they do. As well, there are times that artists have to sue
other artists for not getting their permission to sample their work. Another
liability that many face is the mishandling of their money that managers keep
from them.
Having proper knowledge of the royalties that you’re
entitled to worked in the favor of rapper Chuck D (of Public Enemy). In 2011,
he filed a lawsuit again Universal Music Group because they were not keeping
track of digital music sales therefore causing Public Enemy to not be able to
be paid all of the monies that were owed to them. When an artist agrees to sell
their music via any web-based programs, they should be able to receive
royalties from sales of CDs and licenses of their digital downloads. But in
this particular lawsuit, Universal was not properly separating the two
categories, which was causing the group to not receive all of the money that is
due to them. This case had lead to other artists [and their management] to look
into their own royalty accounts. I think that it is extremely imperative for
artists to make sure that they have someone on their side to watch out for
their financial future when it comes to their royalties. If they are able to
prove exactly how much money that they are missing out on from this
miscalculation, I think that Public Enemy is due for a positive outcome from
this lawsuit (Sisario, 2011) .
Many music fans have become very familiar with the fame of
Jay Z and Kayne West’s album Watch the
Throne. Many of us have been able to find at least one track from this
album that we enjoy listening to. In light of the release of this outstanding
record, Syl Johnson has filed a lawsuit against them citing that they have
illegally sampled one of his hits, “Different Strokes.” I think that this case
could have all been avoided had West made sure that he “finished what he
started” when he expressed intentions of sampling the song back in 2010 for a
prior project which never got proper permission for use. Being able to gain
proper authorization will allow many artists from having to back track later on
down the road. Now Johnson is requesting that the duo pay him for this sampling
his music (Rolling Stone, 2012) .
As the manager of any music artist, you will always remain
under tiresome scrutiny if the funds don’t seem to add up the right way. Some
managers do take advantage of their artists by stealing money from them. Those
allegations are presented soon after he decided to no longer have him as her
manager and it takes a lot for him to prove it to be wrong. In the case of
Matthew Knowles (father of Beyonce Knowles-Carter), he was being accused by
Beyonce’s camp that he was stealing money from her. Although he claims that he
has never taken any money from his daughter, there hasn’t been record of a
formal lawsuit being filed. Even at this point, Beyonce still does not even
speak to her father. I feel that whether or not she files the lawsuit against
him, he has lost far more than money and that is the relationship with his
daughter (Moody, 2011) .
No matter the role you play as a professional in the music
industry, there are various type of liability situations that one can find
themselves in. Many of them may not have been done intentional (because there
are some that are done intentionally) but we all must learn to protect
ourselves. Just by being careful to cover all of the bases, we have rectify a
situation before someone tries to take us to court over a small issue.
---- Jackee Walker
Sources:
Moody, N. M. (2011, July 14). Mathew Knowles: I Did Not
Steal From Beyonce. Retrieved August 7, 2013, from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/15/mathew-knowles-i-did-not-_n_899636.html
Rolling Stone. (2012, March 12). Kanye West and Jay Z
Settle Syl Johnson Lawsuit. Retrieved August 7, 2013, from Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kanye-west-and-jay-z-settle-syl-johnson-lawsuit-20120312
Sisario, B. (2011, November 3). Chuck D. Sues Universal
Music Over Digital Royalties. Retrieved August 7, 2013, from New York
Times: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/chuck-d-sues-universal-music-over-digital-royalties/?_r=0
