Incubus Sues Sony Music

Incubus is following the Dixie Chicks' lead.

The hugely successful rock quartet has filed suit against Sony Music Entertainment seeking freedom from a recording contract that will come up for renewal this summer. Attorneys for the plaintiffs claim that Sony has benefited enormously from sales of Incubus CDs and DVDs while consistently underpaying the performers. Incubus is one the ten most popular rock acts now performing, and has sold a total of approximately 7.5 million copies of its recordings.

The lawsuit, filed February 1 in the Santa Monica branch of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks clarification of the group's rights under the California Labor Code. The state's laws limit contracts for personal services to seven years, with an exemption written in at the behest of the music industry that specifically excludes recording contracts. According to musicians' rights activists, the exemption allows record labels to keep artists in a state of involuntary servitude for decades, prevents them from seeking more equitable contracts, and unfairly limits their use of their own creations. State senator Kevin Murray (D-Culver City) is working to pass legislation that will protect artists from long contract terms.

Steve Rennie, the band's manager and a former Epic Records executive, told reporters that during the six-and-a-half years Incubus has been with Sony, the corporation "has been handsomely rewarded financially . . . while the members of Incubus have received relatively little financial compensation for their creative and professional efforts in connection with the sale of their music." He told the Los Angeles Times, "Incubus objected to the labels' common practice of deducting such costs as packaging, video production, and other fees from the artists' cut." The court case will determine whether the band "is entitled to share fairly in the fruits of their labor going forward."

Sony spokesmen countered that Incubus has "an exclusive contract" with the company's Immortal Records label, and still owes four albums, and implied that a countersuit for the undelivered albums could follow if the court finds in favor of Incubus. That threat was softened with a statement made Thursday, February 6: "We have the highest regard for Incubus and their music and take great pride in the work we have done together to build a worldwide audience for them."

Last year, the Dixie Chicks sued Sony Music, seeking free agency and complaining about accounting irregularities, but caved in to a new offer of a $20 million advance and a larger slice of profits. Beck, Don Henley, Luther Vandross, Courtney Love, and many other musicians have long complained about unfair recording contracts. In the Dixie Chicks rebellion, Sony successfully leveraged a threatened countersuit for undelivered material. Mutinies by top acts are becoming commonplace during one of the roughest periods in the music industry's history, with sales of CDs now in their third year of decline.

The Incubus lawsuit could be a trial by fire for new Sony Music president Andrew Lack, who assumed his position just a few days before the suit was filed. The 55-year-old Lack was formerly president of NBC television, and has no experience in the music industry. Sony Corporation of America CEO Howard Stringer told the Wall Street Journal that Lack's "fresh insight" should help the music division find its way out of the mire. The music industry is beset by problematic relationships "with consumers, artists, publishers and technology," Stringer said. "All four of these [constituencies] are in crisis at the same time."

On February 11, the fight between the recording artists and the record label became a bi-coastal battle, whose outcome will have ramifications for contracts to be signed nationwide. On that date, Sony Music Entertainment filed suit in federal court in Manhattan, seeking an end to the lawsuit initiated ten days earlier by the band in Los Angeles. Sony also wants four more albums from the group, material it claims it is owed under terms of the original 1996 contract. Should the label succeed in court, it may not succeed in the recording studio. Striking miners may be forced by law to dig coal, but artists can't be forced to create good art.

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