Here another law suit but this time against Sony Music Entertainment. The American Federation of Musicians is saying that Sony violated its contract in the Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It” by misleading the artists to record work for “This Is It” with the understanding that they were working on a phonographic recording instead of a film score.
Sony has yet to respond but the Union said “The Sound Recording Labor Agreement, which Sony has signed, covers only recording sessions for records and prohibits recording film scores”
Ray Hair, president of AFM International said Sony refused to sign a letter allowing them to use the AFM Motion Picture Agreement for this recording session. As a result, musicians have been unable to collect residuals on the film which made over $260 million worldwide!
“A fan may wonder what difference it makes if musicians record music under one contract versus another, but it makes a huge difference to musicians trying to earn a living,” Hair said. “Musicians have joined together to create industry standards and it is simply unacceptable for greedy corporations to knowingly violate those standards by denying residuals.”
The suit also charges Sony with refusing to make new payments on Pitbull’s 2012 version of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” and sampling of Michael songs like “Billie Jean” and “Man in the Mirror” in “This Is It.”
“We did not want to go to court, but Sony repeatedly refused to do the right thing and pay the musicians fairly,” Hair said.
The AFM is seeking breach of contract damages, including the payment of wages and benefits that should have been given to musicians.
Even though we understand that any contracts need to be respected and artists need to be paid for what they did, why now? Clearly some people are out of cash and just jumped on another wagon to make a quick amount of money!
SOURCE: Variety
