Former Savage Garden singer Darren Hayes has blasted Sony Music for allegedly not upholding a deal which would allow him to have access to his back catalogue.
Darren Hayes, who recently celebrated 20 years of Savage Garden has taken a swipe at his record label, Sony Music, calling them ’embarrassing’ over, he says, not allowing him and his fans access to music videos that he made during his career.
The artist, who now lives in Los Angeles with his husband, says he has spent millions on music videos, has alleged his original label is not allowing various territories to view the content and has so far refused to answer emails, messages or phone calls.
In his open letter to Sony the Moon And Back singer said,
“As a recording artist, I’ve been charged many many millions of dollars, taken out of the sales of my albums, to finance the music videos made in my career. Since 1997 I’ve made many music videos and you can be assured every single one of them was charged to me and repaid from my earnings, as per my recording agreements.”
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Traditionally an artist like Savage Garden would have had to pay back their record company most if not all expenses to do with promoting their albums. Record companies will initially pay to have music videos made, along with other promotional materials which an artist, over time, and through their record sales would pay back.
Artists, as per their agreements, will pay back the label until all costs are met – this is called recoupment. It can often taken years to recoup.
https://twitter.com/darrenhayes/status/726744793645076481
https://twitter.com/darrenhayes/status/726748966134509568
Darren continued,
“I recently re-negotiated the terms of my recording contract where I was assured I would have access to all my official Savage Garden and Darren Hayes music videos I paid for. It’s 2016 and to date, many of my solo videos are missing, or if they do exists, are restricted from view in the UK, Australia and many parts of Europe FOR NO REASON
“At the time of writing, I still don’t even have access to my official Savage Garden YouTube page – a condition that was promised to me when I agreed to allow Sony to continue to distribute my catalogue under their original deal. Since going through the official channels doesn’t seem to work, I’m just making this information public so someone in charge might see this.
“It is completely disrespectful to me as an artist, and after the amount of money I’ve contributed to Sony that they would treat my legacy with such disinterest. If you’re out there Sony, return your phone calls, give me access to my music videos and for god’s sake, re-evalute who you’ve put in charge of your online content globally because it’s embarrassing.
We reached out to Sony Music for comment.
