As I wrote on Friday, the Sony-Kesha legal wrangle is a disaster for the record company. They must settle it now.
And really now because Taylor Swift has joined the long line of artists who are backing Kesha. Swift has donated $250,000 to Kesha’s legal fund so she can keep fighting.
Kesha, as I wrote on Friday, claims producer Dr. Luke raped her and basically tortured her mentally and physically. She is trying to break her contract with Sony Music and get off the label and away from him. A judge in New York ruled on Friday that Kesha’s contract was binding and that she was stuck. It is now up to Sony to acquiesce and let Kesha go somewhere else. Taylor Swift follows Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato and a host of other singers who’ve come to Kesha’s aid. It’s only a matter of time before Sony’s biggest female artists– Barbra Streisand, Beyonce, and Adele– all come to this conclusion.
Years ago, Michael Jackson fought to get off of Sony under very different circumstances. He claimed they were racist and trying to destroy him. Unfortunately, he was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to them, and things were quite different.
Recording artists, however, over the decades have found themselves legally attached to a label or mogul who held their future in their hands. Efforts to escape were futile. One such case was the long battle between John Fogerty and the late Saul Zaentz, who’d bought the Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog. Fogerty missed more than a decade of recording as he battled with Zaentz.
No good can come of these things, but before the internet and social networking, it was possible for record companies to destroy careers. Kesha’s supporters are already planning a public show of strength this Friday in front of Sony (although I think they have the wrong address). If you’re Sony, who needs this tsouris? Apologize and get out. Taylor Swift stood up against Apple and Spotify. It’s a lose-lose situation.
