George Michael Vs Sony
Encyclopedia
George Michael vs. Sony was a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

 against Sony Music filed by George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...

, an English singer/songwriter who performs pop-oriented soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

.

The lawsuit

Alleging "Restraint of Trade," Michael filed suit against Sony Music in 1993. He was said to have a deteriorating relationship with the record company and was dissatisfied with his recording contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...

, which was an extension of the one he originally signed at the age of eighteen. If the court had ruled in Michael's favour, it was believed that such a verdict would have wide-ranging impact throughout the music industry. Analysts said that music companies could then face a series of legal actions from other top performers demanding similar terms in case of Michael's victory.

In court

In the front row of Court 39 George's lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

s contended the pop star
Pop Star
"Pop Star" is a 2005 single from Japanese singer Ken Hirai. The single went on to top the 2005 Oricon Charts and is known for its remarkable music video, featuring Ken in seven different personas, including a raccoon and his own manager. The Video also helped Ken break into the US and Canadian...

 was the victim not only of an unfair contract but of an industry that concentrated power in too few hands, to the disadvantage of the recording artists. On one side of the courtroom
Courtroom
A courtroom is the actual enclosed space in which a judge regularly holds court.The schedule of official court proceedings is called a docket; the term is also synonymous with a court's caseload as a whole.-Courtroom design:-United States:...

 lawyers for Sony Corp., which bought Michael's original record company, CBS
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, in 1987 emphasised that George Michael had signed a binding contract.

In outlining his case, Michael's counsel, Mark Cran, said his client had signed up with a recording company at age 18 and had been a prisoner of that action ever since. Mr. Cran described his client, who together with his partner formed the then-struggling pop group
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 Wham!, as "completely unknown" at the time and as "effectively supplicants looking for any contract they could get." What they got, Mr. Cran insisted, was a lifetime commitment to their record company. "This case is not about money," Mr. Cran argued. "It is about restraint of free trade, an agreement which binds George Michael for the whole of his professional career to terms capable of being worked to his substantial disadvantage." In quantifying that disadvantage, Mr. Cran insisted that the profit Sony had made from Mr. Michael was six times what George Michael himself had received. Mr. Cran cited documents provided by Sony in 1991 that put its net profit
Net profit
Net profit or net revenue is a measure of the profitability of a venture after accounting for all costs. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 91 percent responded that they found the "net profit" metric very useful...

 on each compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 recording at £2.45 ($3.71), compared with Mr. Michael's bottom-line profit on CD sales of 37 pence.

The points of George lawyer included remuneration
Remuneration
Remuneration is the total compensation that an employee receives in exchange for the service they perform for their employer. Typically, this consists of monetary rewards, also referred to as wage or salary...

 and the fact that recording artists must surrender the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

 on their work to their record companies. He said, however, that the most important point was the lifetime nature of the contract. The "imbalance" in the standard recording contract, he said, spoke volumes about the concentration of power among the six companies that dominate the music industry and added up to their stars being "fettered." The big companies, Mr. Cran charged, "only compete with each other when it comes to the selling, promotion and marketing function," not in the terms they offer recording artists, especially unproven artists, for their services.

Among Michael's complaints was that Sony had not fully supported the release of his second solo album, 1990's Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1, resulting in its poor performance in the U.S. compared to Faith
Faith (George Michael album)
Faith is George Michael's first solo album, released in October 1987 via Columbia Records/Epic Records. The album has won several awards including the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1989. To date, the album has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, and received diamond certification from...

. Sony countered that it was Michael's own refusal to appear in any of the album's promotional music videos that conrtibuted to the album's commercial failure.

Finding

The case was found against Michael. As a consequence, Michael declared he would not release any new material until he had completed the minimum of his contractual obligations to Sony declaring he was victim of artistic slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

.

Following the completion of his contractual obligations to Sony Music, Michael became the first artists signed to Dreamworks Records
DreamWorks Records
DreamWorks Records was an American record label. Founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg as a subsidiary of DreamWorks SKG, the label operated until 2005 when it was shut down...

, the then-recently established music division of Dreamworks SKG. In 1996, he released his third album, Older.

However, On November 17, 2003, George Michael re-signed with Sony Music. The first album released under the new contract was 2004's Patience.
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