Labels in barroom brawl over booze ballad

By Susan Butler

NEW YORK (Billboard) - The F-word and S-word are again causing a brawl.

This time it's not a fight over objectionable radio broadcasts, but over old versions, new versions and edited versions of an eight-year-old tune that's finding a new lease of life -- "Sittin' at a Bar" by Atlanta-based quintet Rehab.

And the fight is being fueled by the bane of most artists: an old production deal that has left the band with little recourse when it doesn't like changes to its album and album artwork.

Several years ago, Rehab assigned its rights in recordings to a production company called Destiny Music, Los Angeles-based attorney Kia Kamran says. That company entered a deal with Sony Music (now Sony BMG Music Entertainment). Like most production deals with a major label, Destiny assigned the recording rights to Sony.

This type of setup means that artists are not direct parties to the contract with the label. As a result, they typically have little or no legal rights in connection with how those recordings are changed or marketed.

Most artists that later find some success abhor their production deals. The companies often take 40 percent-60 percent of the artist royalties received from the label. If the production company goes defunct, sometimes it's hard for the artists to get all or any part of the royalties.

But Kamran says Rehab's fight is not over money; it's over artistic integrity.

Rehab's "Sittin' at a Bar" appeared on the 2000 album "Southern Discomfort," which was released by Sony's Epic imprint. The record wasn't a hit at the time. Epic dropped the band and entered a termination agreement in 2003 with Destiny. The major still owns the master rights.

Rehab continued to tour. The song reportedly became a sort of anthem in bars around the Untied States. Just listening to part of the song currently on iTunes explains why.

"Now I'm sittin' here talkin' to you/drunk and on the run. (Chorus:) I'm sittin' at a bar on the inside/waitin' for my ride on the outside/she broke my heart in the trailer park/so I jacked the keys to her f---in' car/and crashed that piece of s--t and then stepped away."

As the song found nearly 1 million listeners across the Internet, Kamran says he began trying to make a new deal with a major label, speaking with executives at Epic and Universal Republic. He says that Epic hadn't been aware of the growing popularity of the song. The band rerecorded the old song and signed with Universal Republic last month.

Now, Epic has a clean version -- without the f- and s-words -- that it's servicing to radio and offering through iTunes. Kamran says that Epic also edited other tracks on the album without permission, retitled the album "Sittin' at a Bar" and changed the cover artwork to depicting people at a bar.

Kamran is arguing with Epic, raising breach of contract claims. He asserts that Epic did not obtain permission to edit all the tracks from the album -- even though the label did send a letter to Destiny to edit the single. Since Destiny never responded, Epic may have had the right to make the changes under the contract.

Kamran says he represents Destiny and Rehab, but adds that "Destiny is gone." As a result, Danny Boone, current and co-founding member of Rehab, really has no recourse against Destiny, he says.

Meanwhile, Universal Republic is also servicing the song to radio and selling the album. Kamran says it's causing "confusion" in the marketplace. So the brawl is also spilling over to the two major labels, which each claim in letters that the other may be making misrepresentations in its marketing materials.

Kamran admits that Boone receives less money from the Epic version of the song, but says it's a "moral issue." He's making the "this is not cool" argument against Epic's edits and changes.

Whatever the outcome, the Rehab saga again shines the spotlight on the importance of contract terms in those very first deals that artists sign. Perhaps there could have been a provision in the production deal and the label deal granting the artists the right to "step into the shoes" of the production company if or when that company closed its doors.

But then again, there are likely thousands of artists who would love to be having Rehab's problems right now: two majors working the artist's song to radio.

Reuters/Billboard