Anita Baker is in the fight of her musical life with Electra and Atlantic Records over the ownership of her thirty-five-year-old masters. Baker’s jazzy, rhythmic, and melodic songs such as “Caught up in the Rapture,” “Sweet Love,” and “Angel” propelled her into mainstream airplay.
Baker took to Twitter and announced to her over 600 thousand followers and fans that her artist contracts had expired. By law, after 35-years, the artist regains ownership of their masters from the record company. This law is called Copyright Reversion.
Record Companies are Well Known Thieves
Record companies are notorious for robbing, raping, and stealing music rights from artists for years. Like Baker, The King of Pop Michael Jackson was brawled in a battle with Sony Music Group’s CEO, Tony Motola.
Jackson claimed that Motola and Sony were racist and were stealing from artists who could not fight for themselves. Sony wanted to buy Jackson’s music catalog from him, hence the war.
Do not forget that in 2014 Pop icon Prince won his 18-year war with Warner Bros. Records over rights to his music catalog. Prince changed his name to a symbol and wrote the word slave on his cheek to demonstrate his thoughts about record labels and their relationship to artists.
Record Companies Mostly Own Song Masters
Most artists do not own their masters and only receive monies through record sales, merchandise, brand deals, and concert tours. Even with royalties and streaming deals being in place, without owning the masters, those monies do not do much financially for artists like Baker.
Baker is well aware of this criminal practice of record companies, and she tweeted:
Recordings Streamed & Sold are Inferior & Missing Original Instrumentation. Recording Speeds have been ‘Sped Up’ Bootleg/Bogus ‘Vinyls’ R Not from Original Analog Mstrs. But, from Re-Processed (no Mid- Range frequencies) Digital Copies. Fans Deserve Better.
Dave Chappelle Sets Standard
This phenomenon is not only taking place in the music industry but comedian Dave Chappelle in a brief 18-minute video called “Unforgiven;” Chappelle asked fans not to stream “The Chappelle Show.” He explains that even though he created the show, he did not own the rights.
Comedy Central and HBO are re-streaming the show, and he does not get anything in return. In an unprecedented act, Chappelle asked fans to boycott his own show. A week later, Comedy Central handed over the rights and paid him millions of dollars in the process.
It appears that Baker is taking a page out of Chappelle’s playbook and is asking her fans not to stream her music. Baker is standing on that Copyright Reversion law, understanding that retrieving her masters back is not automatic.
What is The Copyright Reversion Law?
On January 1, 1978, President Gerald Ford signed into effect the fourth revision of the copyright law. But what are the steps needed to retrieve masters under this law? This is how it works.
When an artist creates a musical composition, it is tough to determine that song’s future value. So labels and publishers exploit the artist through their copyrights.
Copyrights are broken down into two categories, composition copyright and sound recording copyright. Songwriters often sign contractual agreements giving up their composition copyrights to publishers to receive an up-front payment and marketplace circulation.
Artists like Baker also turn over their sound recording copyrights to record labels under the same type of deal, including distribution, promotion, and marketing. If Baker is the author of both composition and sound recording copyrights, she has the right to reclaim her masters after 35-years.
Baker is an eight-time Grammy winner and has five platinum albums.
https://youtu.be/hiPvzVxyOUk
Written by Omari Jahi
Sources:
BET: Anita Baker Fights For Her Masters, Tells Fans To Not Buy Or Stream Her Music; by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton
The Root: Caught Up in the Masters: Anita Baker Asks Fans Not to Stream or Buy Music as She Fights to Reclaim Her Music Rights; by Shanelle Genai
Manamenoire: Anita Baker Asks Fans Not To Stream Or Download Her Music As She Fights For Masters; by Veronica Wells
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Sandra Gadsden’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image by INTX: The Internet & Television Expo Courtesy of Wikimedia – Creative Commons License
Second Inset Image by GabboT Courtesy of Wikimedia – Creative Commons License
Third Inset Image Courtesy of Michal Jarmoluk’s Pixabay page – Creative Commons License
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