On March 18, 2008, I signed a recording contract with a new, digital-media-only label.  Apparently, they had only been around for 2 weeks when I signed on.  They had already signed two other bands to the label, so I took comfort in knowing that I would not be the first musical artist they had dealings with.

Apparently, this recording label had a contract already drawn for their bands to sign.  Everything appeared to be very well organized and in order.  I signed the contract with great expectations!

Among the bands signed was a female-fronted electronic band.  Very good sound.  Highly creative.

It seems the founder of this record label was really interested in this female-fronted band, as he apparently though it would be a good idea to make sexual comments and advances toward her.  The problem with this is both, the label's founder and the female lead of this band are both married.

She did not take well to these advances.  In retaliation, the founder of the label decided to void the female-fronted band's contract.  The contract, however, did not have an exit clause for either party.  To avoid breach of contract, the label's founder sold the company to his wife... for $1.  All of the old contracts were nullified and the new owner of the label could pick and choose who to re-sign.  Of course, the new owner chose to re-sign all of the previous bands who had contracts - except for the female-fronted band.

Not wanting to be part of a label who thinks it good practise to sell the company and void contracts every time a band and the label have a problem, I chose not to re-sign.  But, this is only after I created an $800 web site for the company and sent all of my music covered under the contract to them. 

I have sent a letter through Certified Mail that I demand written notice that my contract is null and void and I demand return of ownership of all of my copyrights, as well as all music masters that I sent him.  I also demand the destruction of any copy of my music and artwork they have, be it on physical media, or in digital form.  They have until May 15 to comply.

If they fail to comply, I am considering suing them for the return of my music, as well as the $800 for the web site I created for them (by their request). 

All-in-all, this deal has screwed me out of a lot of money.  All because the founder of the label couldn't keep it in his pants...

+ruined