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Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s board of directors levied two complaints at its investment advisor, the Merck Mercuriadis-led Hipgnosis Song Management, on Tuesday (Jan. 23) that call into question the company’s ability to field competitive bids for its assets. Shareholders have told Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s newly constituted board they believe the investment advisor’s call option — a […]
This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.
This week: Madonna is sued by angry fans over concerts that started later than scheduled; Michael Jackson’s estate faces a lawsuit after threatening to sue a Las Vegas tribute act; Ice Spice is sued over allegations that her “In Ha Mood” ripped off an earlier track; and much more.
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THE BIG STORY: Madonna Fans Sue Over Delayed Concerts
Finally: a lawsuit for people who just want to get some sleep.
Madonna was hit with a proposed class action last week because the Material Girl allegedly started three New York City concerts later than scheduled, a delay that her accusers say caused real legal harm to ticket buyers who, among other things, “had to get up early to go to work” the next day.
Can you really sue over that? Madonna and Live Nation will probably argue that concert fans are on notice that shows sometimes start a little later than scheduled. But ticket buyers Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden claim that by making fans wait two extra hours beyond the listed start time, she not only breached her contract with them, but also committed a “wanton exercise in false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices.”
For more, go read our full story, including Fellows and Hadden’s claims about “Madonna’s long history of arriving and starting her concerts late” and full access to the actual court docs filed against her.
Other top stories this week…
MJ TRIBUTE BATTLE – A long-running Michael Jackson tribute act in Las Vegas called “MJ Live” filed a preemptive lawsuit against the singer’s estate, asking a judge to rule that it could legally continue to perform the show. The organizers of MJ Live say the King of Pop’s attorneys have been unfairly threatening to sue even though the show has been running successfully for more than a decade. The estate called the case “beyond frivolous” and vowed to “vigorously” defend itself.
ICE SPICE COPYRIGHT CASE – The Bronx rapper was hit with a copyright lawsuit over allegations that her recent hit, “In Ha Mood,” was copied from an earlier track called “In That Mood” by a Brooklyn artist named D.Chamberz. The lawsuit claims the two songs share so many similarities — including beat, lyrics, hook, rhythmic structure, metrical placement and narrative context — that the overlap “cannot be purely coincidental.”
COULDN’T PICTURE THIS – The Notorious B.I.G.’s estate reached a settlement with the widow of late hip hop photographer Chi Modu, resolving years of litigation over merch bearing Modu’s famed image of the late rapper standing in front of the World Trade Center. A judge had ruled earlier in the case that Modu was entitled to reproduce and sell his image, but that slapping it onto products likely violated Biggie’s likeness rights.
MILES DAVIS TATTOO TRIAL – A trial is set to kick off this week over whether celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D violated copyright law when she inked a photographer’s portrait of jazz legend Miles Davis onto the arm of a friend. He says she chose to “precisely replicate” every aspect of his image; she says it was a legal fair use.
INFRINGEMENT ON THE RADIO – Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights (GMR), a boutique performance rights organization with a star-studded catalog, filed a copyright lawsuit claiming that a group of Vermont radio stations operated without a license for years. The allegations come after GMR spent years litigating against the Radio Music Licensing Committee, the group that negotiates music licensing deals for more than 10,000 radio stations.
TEKASHI 6IX9INE CHARGES – Authorities in the Dominican Republic arrested the embattled rapper on charges of domestic violence. This marks the latest in a long string of legal issues for the American rapper, who was arrested in October for a separate assault in the Dominican Republic, and faced federal gang charges in the United States before that.
JONAS-TURNER DIVORCE SETTLEMENT – Former Games of Thrones actress Sophie Turner dropped her “wrongful retention” lawsuit against ex-husband Joe Jonas over the custody of their two daughters after the former couple signed a co-parenting consent plan approved by a U.K. judge.
RBD and Guillermo Rosas, the group’s business partner who helped reunite the band after 15 years, have officially parted ways, Billboard can confirm. The news of the split comes just a month after the Mexican pop group — composed of Anahí, Dulce María, Maite Perroni, Christopher von Uckermann and Christian Chávez — wrapped their massive […]
Did a celebrity tattoo artist violate copyright law when she inked a photographer’s portrait of jazz legend Miles Davis onto the arm of a friend? A jury is set to the decide that question in a trial set to kick off Tuesday.
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Photographer Jeffrey B. Sedlik filed his lawsuit back in 2021 against Katherine Von Drachenberg – better known as Kat Von D, a celebrity tattoo artist who rose to prominence in the 2000s on her TLC reality show “fLA Ink.” He claimed she infringed his 1989 image of Davis by using it as the basis for a tattoo.
After years of litigation – and a U.S. Supreme Court case over Andy Warhol that changed the legal landscape midway through – attorneys for Sedlik and Von D will head to a Los Angeles federal courthouse Tuesday for a jury trial that will settle the dispute once and for all.
Sedlik, who calls his photo “world-famous,” has argued that Von D clearly broke the law when she chose to “precisely replicate every aspect of the iconic Miles Davis portrait in the form of a tattoo.” Von D, meanwhile, says she only used the image as a reference and that her tattoo is protected by copyright law’s so-called fair use doctrine, which allows people to re-use protected works in certain situations.
Initially, Judge Dale S. Fischer seemed inclined to side with Von D on a key question: Whether she had “transformed” the photo into something new. In a May 2022 ruling, the judge said Von D had “changed its appearance to create what she characterizes as adding movement and a more melancholy aesthetic.”
But the case got a legal shakeup a year later, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major ruling on fair use. In that decision, the justices said that the late Andy Warhol had violated a photographer’s copyrights years earlier when he used her images of Prince to create one of his distinctive screen prints – a decision that was widely interpreted as making it harder to prove fair use.
After the Warhol ruling came out, Judge Fischer ruled against Von D on that same key question of “transformative.” Citing the new Supreme Court precedent, the judge ruled that simply putting the same image in a new context and claiming new aesthetics was not enough to count as a fair use.
But even after that ruling, the overall question of fair use must still be decided by the jury at the trial set to kick off Tuesday. Jurors will be tasked with deciding whether Von D made “commercial” use of Sedlik’s image – a tough question, since she inked her friend free-of-charge but also promoted the work on her social media accounts. They must also decide whether her use of the image hurt Sedlik’s ability to license the image himself, another key question in any fair use case.
Union members who work at Condé Nast brands including Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ will be walking off the job on Tuesday to protest negotiations conduct that they claim violates labor law.
More than 400 Condé Nast Union members at those three publications as well as Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious, Glamour, Self, Teen Vogue and Condé Nast Entertainment are set to strike for 24 hours on Tuesday and hold a rally in front of the company’s offices in New York. The action stems from labor negotiations that have turned sour since Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch announced the company’s intentions to cut 5 percent of its workforce on Nov. 1.
The one-day walkout “is really about the company engaging in regressive bargaining and breaking the law in bargaining by rescinding an offer that they had previously made around layoffs,” the union’s Condé Nast Entertainment unit vice chair Ben Dewey, a videographer, told The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s so much solidarity that everybody is really looking out for their coworkers and willing to go on strike for this unfair way that the company is engaging in bargaining.” According to Dewey, Tuesday’s action is the first Condé Nast-wide strike in the company’s history.
THR has reached out to Condé Nast for comment. I’m a Virgo director Boots Riley tweeted out the news on Monday.
The walkout is timed to coincide with the announcement of nominations for the 96th Academy Awards, which is an important news day for select Condé Nast brands, such as Vanity Fair. To amplify the specificity of the choice, the union is planning on staging an Oscars-themed picket line starting at 10 a.m. ET in front of Condé Nast’s One World Trade Center offices that will feature a red carpet and a “step-and-repeat” area for photography, while a rally starting at 1 p.m. ET will include an “awards ceremony,” per the union.
“We just really want to show how much Condé relies on union members to cover big events like the Oscar nominations,” explained Dewey.
The NewsGuild of New York, the umbrella labor group of which the Condé Nast Union is one part, has filed two unfair labor practices charges against Condé Nast with the National Labor Relations Board since the Nov. 1 layoffs announcement. In December the union claimed that the company surveilled and intimidated members while they were trying to gain clarity about layoffs “in at least three instances.” At the time, Condé Nast said in a statement that its security team “followed standard building security protocol and did not engage with any union member.”
And this month the organization alleged that the company had engaged in “regressive bargaining” by downsizing a severance offer. According to the union, Condé Nast originally proposed cutting 94 union jobs, or 20 percent of the union, and providing laid-off workers a severance package it was offering other staffers in the company. After a union counter-offer, the company allegedly proposed still cutting 94 union jobs and cutting its previous severance offer in half.
The move was made “to remind management of their worth and urge company reps to bargain in good faith. We demand nothing less,” said NewsGuild of New York president Susan DeCarava in a statement.
Aside from their ongoing negotiations over layoffs, the Condé Nast Union and management also remain locked in negotiations over a first contract. Management voluntarily recognized the union after a card check in September 2022, and the two parties have been bargaining over the agreement ever since.
Tuesday’s work stoppage follows a similar action on Jan. 19 at the Los Angeles Times, whose newsroom is represented by the West Coast sister union to the NewsGuild of New York, the Media Guild of the West. The Times union, whose current labor contract expired months ago, initiated a 24-hour strike in response to a dispute with the paper’s management over what the labor group says is a “significant” number of layoffs that are coming.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Rock band Shinedown has expanded its deal with WME by signing a global deal with the agency, which previously represented the band in the United States and Canada only.
“The touring industry is ever evolving, and live music and performance means everything to us. I have said it before, and I will say it again… Shinedown only has one boss, it just happens to be everyone in the audience,” said Shinedown vocalist Brent Smith in a statement. “We have been working with Ron Opaleski at WME in the United States and Canada for many years. We feel now is the time to take our partnership global. We are extremely honored and excited to be working with Lucy Dickins and her international team at WME. We are fully focused on the future and we are ready to go!!!”
Earlier this month, Shinedown extended its record for the most No. 1s in the history of Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart when it again hit the peak with “A Symptom of Being Human,” the band’s 19th leader on the tally. Its most recent album, Planet Zero (Atlantic Records), debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in July 2022, marking the group’s fifth top 10 album.
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alex G has signed with RCA Records. The announcement coincided with the unveiling of Alex G’s 2024 North American tour, which kicks off June 7 at New York’s Governors Ball; he’s also slated to support Foo Fighters on select dates of the band’s Everything or Nothing At All U.S. stadium tour. Alex G is managed by Tyler Richman at weekday and booked in North and South America by Greg Horbal at Wasserman Music; Matt Pickering-Copley at Primary Talent International books him for the rest of the world.
Sixpence None the Richer (“Kiss Me”) has signed with Deep South Entertainment for management after reuniting for the first time in 12 years. The news arrived with the announcement that the band’s hit 1997 self-titled album will be re-released on vinyl by Curb Records.
MNRK Music Group has signed Indian singer-songwriter Guru Randhawa for management in partnership with Randhawa’s Mumbai, India-based management firm Exceed Entertainment. Randhawa is represented by CAA for booking; his label is T-Series.
Canadian reggae-fusion band MAGIC! has signed with ONErpm, which will release all of the group’s future projects globally. The group’s first release on ONErpm is the track “Good Feeling About You,” which will appear on the band’s forthcoming album, Inner Love Energy, slated for release later this year. MAGIC! is booked by Seth Rappaport at Paladin Artists.
Norteño group Código FN has signed a management deal with Gorge Prajin‘s Prajin Parlay, the management company home to Peso Pluma, Santa Fe Klan and Jasiel Nuñez, among others. Prajin Parlay works in partnership with Peso Pluma’s record label, Double P Records. The five-member group — composed of Ernesto Tito León, Danny León, Ramiro Luna, Martín Parra and Manuel Villalpando — blends tumbado and bachata styles into the traditional accordion-powered norteño sound. – Griselda Flores
Verve Label Group has announced two new signings: indie singer-songwriter Phosphorescent (aka Matthew Huock) to Verve Records and experimental jazz-punk trio The Messthetics to Impulse! Records. Verve Records will release Phosphorescent’s upcoming album, Revelator, on Apr. 15, preceded by the title track on Jan. 24. Impulse! will release Messthetics’ new song, “Emergence,” on Jan. 24, and their upcoming album on Mar. 15. Phosphorescent is represented by manager Nick Stern and booked by CAA. The Messthetics is booked by Timmy Hefner at Ground Control Touring.
Regional Mexican newcomer Los Esquivel has signed a management deal with WK NXT, a division under WK Entertainment spearheaded by Chris Duque and Renato Francis. The new partnership includes co-management and worldwide bookings with Seitrack and an exclusive deal with Zamora Live for U.S. bookings. Most recently, Los Esquivel — composed of brothers Sebastian and Eugenio Esquivel — scored its first entry on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart with “Alucin,” a collaboration with Marca Registrada, which landed at No. 49 on the tally dated Jan. 27. – Griselda Flores
James Vincent McMorrow has signed a label deal with Nettwerk. The news arrived alongside the announcement of his forthcoming single, “Stay Cool,” which will be released on Friday (Jan. 26). McMorrow is managed by Ken Allen and Michael Roe at Faction Music.
North African and Middle Eastern artist Mohamed Ramadan has signed a partnership with Wassim “Sal” Slaiby‘s music management company SALXCO in a deal that includes booking representation. The signing coincides with the announcement of “Akwaba,” Ramadan’s official anthem (alongside Magic System and Yemi Alade) for the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations soccer competition. His label is Universal Arabic Music.
South African artist Maxwell Jardine, who performs as 9lives, has signed to PULSE Music Group, which released his latest single, “MULTIMILLIONAIRE” with Trippie Redd and Odetari, on Friday (Jan. 19). 9Lives is represented by manager Dan Woolston of Higher Ground MGMT and booking agents James Gosnell and Mitch Blackman at APA.
Singer-songwriter Michael Marcagi (“The Other Side.”) has signed with Warner Records, which released his latest single, “Scared to Start,” on Jan. 12. Marcagi is managed by Andrew Marcagi and Alex Brahl and represented by Joe Atamian and Geoff Meal at Wasserman for booking.
Grammy-nominated composer, songwriter and producer Stephan Moccio has signed with Decca/Republic Records under a joint agreement. On May 10, he will release a new album, Legends, Myths and Lavendar, with “The Wanderer” serving as its first single. In addition to his solo output, Moccio has collaborated with artists including Miley Cyrus, Céline Dion and The Weeknd.
Singer-songwriter Chase McDaniel signed to Big Machine Records, which will release his new EP, Blame It All on Country Music, on Friday (Jan. 26). McDaniel is represented by manager Kevin Spellman at Vector and booking agent Kevin Neal at WME.
R&B singer-songwriter Samaria signed to RCA Records, which released her new EP, Even Paradise Rains, on Jan. 12. She is represented by CAA for booking.
Country singer-songwriter Ashley Anne signed with WME for global booking representation. Her debut EP, dear dolly, was independently released on Friday (Jan. 19).
Former Google executive Jennifer Koester joins Sphere Entertainment as president, Sphere Business Operations, with effect from Feb. 5.
In this new position, Koester leads the strategy and execution of all business aspects of Sphere, the $2 billion next-generation entertainment space that opened last September in Las Vegas, with U2’s UV’s Achtung Baby Live At Sphere residency.
Announced today (Jan. 22), Koester will work closely with executive leadership to grow the Sphere businesses, including maximizing the calendar and ticket sales; driving strategic partnerships with artists, managers, promoters and others in the live entertainment space; and developing a corporate conference business for product launches and other events.
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Based in New York, Koester reports to James Dolan, executive chairman and CEO, Sphere Entertainment.
“We have seen a strong worldwide reaction to Sphere from customers, brands and artists since our September opening,” comments Dolan in a statement, “and we look forward to leveraging Jennifer’s extensive background driving growth at premier technology and entertainment brands as we continue to build our Sphere business.”
Koester joins the company having racked-up 25 years’ executive-level experience across sales, marketing, technology, digital business, legal counsel and more, most recently serving as managing director, Americas strategic alliances, global partnerships at Google Commercial Operations. Before that, she was director, telecommunications and video distributors, global partnerships at Google.
“Throughout my career, I have focused on pioneering and delivering growth strategies that bridge business needs and leverage new technologies,” she comments, “and I am excited to bring that experience to Sphere.”
The state-of-the-art venue on the Vegas Strip is massive — standing 366 feet tall by 516 feet wide, big enough to house the Statue of Liberty. But it’s the detail that matters.
Its 20,000 capacity main room is dominated by a 160,000-square-foot LED screen that curves and towers to an apex of 240 feet above. Footage from U2’s first run in the room went viral, and the shows were box-office gold.
According to Billboard Boxscore, U2‘s 17-show run beginning in September at Sphere generated nearly $110 million in ticket sales, with an SEC filing noting that those dates generated a total of $30.7 million in revenue for Sphere Entertainment through Nov. 30.
Next up, Sphere Entertainment’s own content offering, Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth, generated approximately $44.5 million in total revenue from ticket sales from 111 showings.
Read more here.
Since unveiling Spatial Audio in June 2021, Apple Music has been pushing labels and artists to rework their music in the immersive format. Now, the platform is offering a financial incentive in the form of increased royalties.
In a letter sent out by Apple Music to its partners on Monday (Jan. 22) and obtained by Billboard, the streamer revealed that beginning with month-end royalty payments in January, music available in Spatial Audio — which is supported by Dolby Atmos — will receive a royalty rate up to 10% higher than content not available in the format.
“Pro-rata shares for Spatial Available plays will be calculated using a factor of 1.1 while Non-Spatial available plays will continue to use a factor of 1,” the letter reads. “This change is not only meant to reward higher quality content, but also to ensure that artists are being compensated for the time and investment they put into mixing in Spatial.”
The letter offers an update on the format’s adoption by artists and users, including a claim that more than 90% of Apple Music listeners have experienced the format and that “plays for music available in Spatial Audio have more than tripled in the last two years.” It additionally states that the number of songs available in the format has increased nearly 5,000% since launch and more than doubled over the last year alone. The company further claims that more than 80% of songs to have charted on the platform’s Global Daily Top 100 in the past year are available in Spatial Audio.
Seemingly to deter bad actors, the letter includes a mention of Apple Music’s “zero-tolerance policy against deceptive or manipulative content,” noting the service has a “quality control process that includes flagging content not delivered in accordance with Apple Music’s Spatial Audio specifications and standards of quality.”
Spatial Audio officially rolled out on June 7, 2021. The format, which provides a surround sound experience in users’ headphones, is offered at no additional cost for Apple Music users, seemingly to speed adoption. As part of this effort, Spatial Audio tracks also enjoy enhanced visibility on the app’s home page, sitting higher than even new music releases. Early adopters of the format included Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, J. Cole and Post Malone.
In a June 2021 interview with Billboard, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vp of internet software and services, conceded that encouraging artists to mix their tracks for Spatial Audio would be a challenge given the time, work and financial investment required.
“This is not a simple ‘take-the-file that you have in stereo, processes through this software application and out comes Dolby Atmos,’” Cue said at the time. “This requires somebody who’s a sound engineer, and the artist to sit back and listen, and really make the right calls and what the right things to do are. It’s a process that takes time, but it’s worth it.”
The leader of the American Federation of Musicians proclaimed that Hollywood labor is “in a new era” as dozens of members of various entertainment unions came to the doorstep of studio labor negotiators in support of the start of his union’s contract negotiations on Monday.
As an early drizzle that morning turned into driving rain, members of the Writers Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and Teamsters Local 399 rallied in front of the Sherman Oaks offices of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers with picket signs, and a few umbrellas, in hand. To AFM‘s chief negotiator and international president Tino Gagliardi, this kind of unity for musicians was unlike anything he’d seen in his time in union leadership. “We’re in a new era, especially in the American labor movement, with regard to everyone coalescing and coming together and collaborating in order to get what we all need in this industry,” Gagliardi told The Hollywood Reporter. “Together we are the product, we are the ones that bring the audiences in, that controls the emotion, if you will.”
The program — which featured music performed by AFM brass musicians and speeches from labor leaders including Teamsters Local 399 secretary-treasurer Lindsay Dougherty, Writers Guild of America West vice president Michele Mulroney and L.A. County Federation of Labor president Yvonne Wheeler — took place hours before the AFM was scheduled to begin negotiations over new Basic Theatrical Motion Picture and Basic Television Motion Picture contracts with the AMPTP in an office just steps away.
The message that speakers drove home was sticking together in the wake of the actors’ and writers’ strikes that shut down much of entertainment for half a year the previous summer and fall. The 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes saw an unusual amount of teamwork occur between entertainment unions, which the AFM is clearly hoping to repeat in their contract talks. “We learned a hard, long lesson last year that we had to be together since day one. That’s going to be the difference going into this fight for the musicians, is that we’re all together in this industry,” Dougherty said in her speech.
The WGA West’s Mulroney addressed the musicians present, saying that her members “never took your support for granted” during the writers’ work stoppage. She added, “The WGA has your back just as you had our backs this past summer.” Though he wasn’t present at Monday’s event, SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland sent a message, delivered by his chief communications officer, that “the heat of the hot labor summer is as strong as ever.”
The AMPTP said in a statement on Monday that it looks forward to “productive” negotiations with the AFM, “with the goal of concluding an agreement that will ensure an active year ahead for the industry and recognize the value that musicians add to motion pictures and television.”
Though the AFM contracts under discussions initially expired in Nov. 2023, the writers’ and actors’ strikes that year prompted both sides to extend the pacts by six months. Top priorities for the musicians’ union in this round of talks include instituting AI protections, amplifying wages and greater streaming residuals.
For rank-and-file writers and actors who showed up at Monday’s rally, one recurring theme was repaying the AFM for its support during their work stoppages. SAG-AFTRA member Miki Yamashita (Cobra Kai), who is also a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists, explained that during the actors’ strike she organized an opera singers-themed picket at Paramount, which AFM members asked to take part in. “Because of them, we had orchestra players and a pianist to play for us during our picket, and I’ll never forget how much that meant to me, that show of solidarity,” she said. “I promised myself that if they ever needed my presence of my help, that I would rush to help them.”
Carlos Cisco and Eric Robbins, both writers on Star Trek: Discovery and WGA members, worked as lot coordinators at Disney during the writers’ strike. They recalled AFM members providing a morale boost during the work stoppage by occasionally playing music on the picket lines. “The struggles that labor faces in this [industry] are universal, whether it’s the hours, the residual payments as we’ve moved to streaming or the concern about AI coming into various spaces. We have far more in common than separates us,” said Robbins.
The AFM’s negotiations are set to continue through Jan. 31. Though the AMPTP offices don’t often see labor demonstrations, Gagliardi says that as a former president of New York-based AFM Local 802, he staged rallies in front of employer headquarters with some frequency. “I did this on a regular basis,” he said. “It was about bringing everyone together to fight for a common cause, and that’s what we’re doing today.”
This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
SiriusXM and Stitcher will not have to face a lawsuit from former Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek accusing them of reneging on a $700,000 podcast deal.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Broadbelt, in a tentative order issued on Friday, dismissed the suit, finding that the audio giant “did not enter into a contract” with the actor since they didn’t finalize the agreement.
Van Der Beek said he reached a deal over email with executives from SiriusXM to host 40 episodes in exchange for a $700,000 minimum guarantee and a 50 percent cut of the net ad revenue. He sued in 2022 after the company walked away from the agreement.
Ruling in favor of SiriusXM on summary judgment, the court concluded that the two sides aren’t bound by an April 2022 document outlining the terms of the deal. It pointed to the first page of the proposal, which states that it’s for “discussion purposes only, is not a binding commitment in any respect, and is not to be interpreted in any respect as a binding commitment to negotiate.”
There was extensive evidence presented to the court referencing the need to sign a definitive, longform agreement contemplated in the initial proposal. Included among them was an email from Stitcher’s Associate Director of Business Development Leah Reis-Dennis, who stated in an April 2022 email “we are ready to call terms officially closed and (finally!) get the longform started.”
Van Der Beek argued that the proposal constitutes a valid, binding contract because Reis-Dennis made various comments indicating that the terms were “closed.”
“However, in those emails, Reis-Dennis also stated that Defendants would be working to begin drafting the longform agreement or request that the longform be drafted,” stated the order, which noted that the actor’s transactional lawyer also discussed having to sign the document to lock down the deal.
Broadbelt also rejected arguments that SiriusXM should be bound by the April 2022 document because the company already started to fulfill some of its terms by beginning the process of hiring a senior producer and requesting Van Der Beek’s payroll information.
In a declaration to the court, Reis-Dennis testified that she requested “loanout info” in order to set up payments to the actor but clarified that she would pay him only “if that agreement was signed.”
The order explained, “Plaintiff has not presented any evidence or argument showing that Reis-Dennis’s request for information to set up payments in the future (1) is inconsistent with the earlier statements that the parties would be bound only upon the execution of a longform agreement, or (2) constitutes an outward manifestation that Defendants intended to be bound by the terms of the April 28 Proposal without such a longform agreement.”
Van Der Beek brought claims relating to breach of contract and sought damages exceeding the $700,000 agreement.
SiriusXM, which was represented by Jordan Susman of Nolan Heimann, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.