Michael Jackson sold 750 million albums for Sony Music Entertainment (35 million of those in the first 12 months after his death). Yet the singer is currently causing the company grief on two different fronts.
The record company has this week failed in its bid to dismiss a consumer protection class action which alleges that it misled the singer’s fans with the posthumous Michael album from 2010. The claim charges that on the record, songs as Monster, Keep Your Head Up and Breaking News were in fact sung by other vocalists.
The class action was brought by Jackson fan Vera Serova. The tracks in question were claimed to be recorded in Jackson friend Eddie Cascio’s basement studio in New Jersey in 2007. They were released through Cascio’s production company, Angelikson Productions LLC via Jackson’s estate and Sony. Serova and Jackson’s family insist the tracks are fake.
LA Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones said Sony’s dismissal bid was ”improper procedurally and wouldn’t have prevailed anyway”.
In the meantime, European regulators will decide by August 1 if Sony’s move in March to buy Jackson’s stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing would give the publisher a monopoly in the global publishing sector. The claim was filed on June 24 by Warner Music Group and indie label lobby group Impala.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing is the world’s largest music publisher, with annual revenues of US$80 million. It owns copyrights to most of the Beatles’ songs and songs by the Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West. Jackson’s 50% stake is estimated at $2 billion.
If the European Commission believes there’s merit to their arguments, it could demand concessions or begin a five-month investigation.
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Reporting from inside the Australian music business since '94.
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