WHAT!?!? I'M BEING SUED!?!?

So, as well all know getting into the entertainment business leaves you open to many liabilities. You have such liabilities as breach of contract, copyright infringement, not having a written contract in place and so on. I want to get in the business of music artist management and decided to look up liabilities associated with the business. In recent months, rapper/singer Drake found his current management team being sued by his former manager, James “Jas” Prince for unpaid royalties. Jas has been credited with discovering Drake. Situations like these happen more often than not. Someone discovers someone else and becomes responsible for the deal that will ultimately catapult him or her into superstardom. The problem with that is the person who does the discovering doesn’t have the necessary documentation to prove that they are entitled to compensation for their actions. That’s why you cannot just trust someone’s word you have to get everything in writing so when problems like that arise it can be taken care of accordingly.

Another situation that arose around November of 2011 was Judas Priest’s Rob Halford and other members of the band had a lawsuit filed against them by Halford’s longtime manager, John Baxter. Baxter is alleging fraud, breach of contract and intentional interference with contractual relations. He was asking for around $50 million in damages. Baxter has been Halford’s manager since 1982. That’s almost three decades and one has to wonder what happened that made them get to this point. Maybe it had something to do with Baxter being fired in August of 2011. It would be sad for Baxter to sue his friend because of bitterness because obviously he enjoyed the benefits of being Halford’s manager otherwise he wouldn’t have stayed on as his manager for almost 30 years. Baxter is suing for failure to pay commissions, salary, and expenses dating all the way back to 1992. Now it seems a little strange that he waited until being fired that he would sue for compensation from 20 years ago. I’m not saying he’s falsifying information but it just doesn’t add up to me.

            Now, it’s sad when parties fight over an artist’s estate after they pass away. That is the case with Michael Jackson and his estate and Jackson’s former manager. As usual they are fighting over money. If they had fought this hard for Michael when he was alive maybe they would have had the chance to save his life. The lawsuit was filed in February of 2012. Michael has been gone from this Earth for 3 years and his team is still fighting over his money. I can’t fathom the stress and turmoil that it is putting on his family, who are dealing with their own drama, which is whole other story entirely. I just hope they get it together so Michael can rest in peace and his family can have some peace.