From The New York Times: Michael Jackson, once the king of pop music, has a beef with the Sony Music Group, his recording company. He is unhappy, say people close to him, with how Sony's Epic label promoted his most recent album, "Invincible," which sold only two million copies in the United States and five million worldwide.
As a result, Mr. Jackson, whose career has waned after a series of public embarrassments, is looking for a new recording contract. Today his unhappiness came to this: Acting like any other outsider with a cause against the establishment, Mr. Jackson teamed up with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Johnnie Cochran, the lawyer who defended O. J. Simpson, to criticize the way recording artists are being treated. "Record companies have to start treating their artists with respect, honor and financial justice," Mr. Jackson said in a statement released today as Mr. Sharpton held a news conference in New York. "Therefore, I am proud to join this coalition which represents all artists."
Mr. Jackson's words are a familiar mantra in the music industry, one that mirrors the growing rift between artists and the recording companies who represent them. The music industry is under attack from all sides these days. Consumers are unhappy, demanding more — and more accessible — music. Regulators are investigating record companies for antitrust concerns. Artists, who were once afraid to challenge their labels, have become bolder. And recording companies — which were flush in the 1980's, but have been hurt by faltering record sales as online services flourished — are tightening their belts, unwilling to pay fat fees to artists who do not bolster profits.
"Everybody is concerned about where the money comes from and where it is going," said Hilary Rosen, the chairwoman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, a Washington-based lobbying group that represents the interests of recording companies. "That raises anxiety."
For many recording companies, the boom times are over. Last year, for instance, the number of records shipped in the United States fell 10.3 percent compared with the previous year. The industry said that resulted largely from piracy and consumers who make their own compact discs.
But the industry, too, has been criticized for not moving quickly enough to appease Internet users. And recording companies signed singers to pricey deals that did not pay off. Earlier this year, the EMI Group split with Mariah Carey after her movie and album for Virgin Records, "Glitter," bombed.
As such, Mr. Jackson is not the only artist who is unhappy. The Dixie Chicks, the female country band, are locked in a contract dispute over money with Sony, but people involved with those negotiations say they expect it to be resolved as early as this week. Lawyers for Courtney Love, whose band, Hole, is fighting with the Universal Music Group, a division of Vivendi Universal, have argued that her contract violated California labor laws. In May, a California judge rejected that claim, although a trial regarding her contract is set to begin this month.
In many ways, "Invincible," Mr. Jackson's first album of new material since 1995, was supposed to be his comeback. Last September, audience members paid as much as $2,500 a ticket at Madison Square Garden to see Mr. Jackson's first performance since 1989 in the continental United States. The show, in part, was taped as a CBS television special and pegged as a celebration of the 30th-anniversary of his first solo single after splitting with the Jackson 5.
There is no question that Mr. Jackson commanded star status and prices in his career: his 1982 "Thriller" sold 23 million copies in the United States and 46 million worldwide. But these days, many in the recording industry agree that Janet Jackson, Mr. Jackson's sister, who also sings and dances, is more popular with the MTV crowd, which is too young to remember Mr. Jackson's oeuvre from the 1970's and 1980's. Younger listeners have come to know Mr. Jackson more through his personal exploits, including his friendship with Bubbles the Chimp, his Neverland Ranch and his multiple plastic surgeries. Last year, Thomas D. Mottola, chairman of the Sony Music Group, said that the company hoped to try to make him more recognizable to younger listeners with "Invincible."
"I think you're going to look at a much more accessible Michael Jackson, a Michael Jackson that the people will be able to touch and feel a lot more than in the past," Mr. Mottola told The Chicago Tribune last year. "At least those are our goals."
Mr. Jackson's comments today about artists deserving more respect left many in the industry shaking their heads. Ms. Rosen said Mr. Jackson's statement better reflected his own disappointment with "Invincible," which failed to sell as well as "Thriller," and not the industry's poor treatment of artists. "Next India and Pakistan will be our fault," Ms. Rosen said.
Sony executives declined to comment on their relationship with Mr. Jackson. A publicist for the singer declined to comment on Mr. Jackson's business with Sony, and John Branca, Mr. Jackson's lawyer, did not return phone calls.
Executives close to Sony contend that the company had spent as much as $25 million to make and market "Invincible" and, when it failed to catch on with consumers, was reticent to spend more when Mr. Jackson demanded they do so. "He's free to walk," said an executive close to Sony, who asked not to be identified. "I'm all for artists getting their fair share, but record companies have abandoned their free-wheeling ways."
Any split between Mr. Jackson and Sony is sure to be complicated. Mr. Jackson and Sony Music Entertainment, Sony's music publishing arm, are partners in a joint venture that began in 1995 when Mr. Jackson combined his catalog of copyrighted music with Sony's, including songs by the Beatles.
In his statement today, Mr. Jackson accused the Sony Music Group of making a false claim that he owed it $200 million, calling it "outrageous and offensive." Mr. Jackson was responding to an article in The New York Daily News today, which quoted an anonymous executive saying that Mr. Jackson owed Sony that sum for studio time and promotion.
"We have never issued any statement verbally or in writing claiming that Michael Jackson owes us $200 million," a Sony spokeswoman said. "As a result we are baffled by the comments issued today by his press representatives."
She added, "We are proud of the job we have done marketing and promoting 'Invincible' worldwide."
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