Tom Hill Record Label Dispute

614 Words3 Pages

Music, musicians, records. When researching my topic, record label disputes, I knew that I would be learning a lot about music, musicians, and records. Tom Petty, a musician, was one of these song writers who were being taken advantage of by the record companies. Tom Petty and other musicians took a stand against their record labels and worked to make things right between the them. Some went as far as to try to publish their own rejected records, putting them in deep debt. Sometimes, because of their actions against their record labels the musicians got their way other times they were forced to find new record labels to start hopefully a brighter future. Tom Petty was one of those unfortunate musicians who got into a dispute with their record label. In Tom Petty's case the dispute was over the amount of money he was getting. How the record labels worked was that they would give them royalties, earnings for their music. These royalties however could not be earned until all cost for creating the music were recovered. According to History.com “Petty seized upon the sale of Shelter by ABC to industry giant MCA as justification to declare himself, in effect, a free agent. In his own words, he would not be bought and sold like …show more content…

In this case however he was being withheld from the music he created. He worked to get his rights to his music by doing things like performing with the word slave written on his cheek. Eventually the company relented and he produced his own music. Prince, 55, said in a statement that he’s “pleased with the results of the negotiations” and looks “forward to a fruitful working relationship.” Michael Jackson was in a similar situation. He was not given rights to the masters of his album. He was being held to his contract and being pressured to buy music catalogs. It would be wasted money if it would not sell and put him in a difficult