Arista, Careers Sue Parsons, Woolfson for Contract Breach
Arista Records, Inc. and Careers Music, Inc. have sued Woolfsongs,
Ltd., Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson in New York Federal Court charging
breach of contract and asking for $45,000,000 in damages.
According to the suit filed last Fridat (1), Parsons and Woolfson,
partners in the Alan Parsons Project, were supposed to deliver a master
recording to Arista on Feb. 21. But on March 5, after the label refused
to make requested changes in the artists' contract, it received two
recorded tapes from Woolfsongs, artists' production firm, which featured
only instrumentals.
Although the tapes had a title, "The Sicilian Defense," Arista claims
that it didn't consider the submission to constitute the master specified
in its multi-million-dollar contract with Alan Parsons Project. But when
the label informed the artists by letter that it was "amused" by their
tapes, Parsons and Woolfson, through their attorneys, notified Arista
that they regarded the letter as a rejection of "The Sicilian Defense."
Accordingly, the artists said they regarded themselves as "free" of their
recording agreement due to what they regarded as Arista's breach of contract.
INJUNCTION SOUGHT
Arista and Careers, which publishes the artists' compositions, seek an
injunction preventing the artists from delivering material to any other
label. They also ask the court to enforce Woolfsings' alleged
contractual obligation to produce for Arista five masters and three
additional masters at Arista's option, and to write songs for Careers
comprising of no less than 90% of each album's material.
In addition, Arista asks for damages of $40,000,000, and Careers
requests damages of $5,000,000.
It was also noted in the complaint that, of the advances of $4,400,000
(plus interest of $700,000) made by Arista to Woolfsongs, diskery had not
recouped $1,915,000 as of March 31. Of the advance of $925,000 made by
Careers to Woolfsings (plus an initial advance of $23,437,500), Careers
had not recouped approximately $42,000 as of April 21. And none of the
$1,540,000 advanced to Woolfsongs by Ariola, Arista's parent company, had
been recouped as of the date of the suit.
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