Idol Contestants Strike Back
It wasn’t long after American Idol became a massive television phenomenon that people began wondering if contestants might have been getting taken advantage of by contracts they signed before ever appearing on the show. In an ironic twist, a federal lawsuit brought by music company ’19 Recordings’ recently filed in New York alleges that Sony Music Entertainment cheated American Idol contestants out of $10 million in royalties. Interesting, plaintiff 19 Recordings was founded by American Idol creator Simon Fuller and is currently run by the television program’s owner, Core Media Group. The most significant claim in the complaint alleges that Sony significantly underpaid Idol, and by extension their artists, for streaming royalties on services such as Spotify and iTunes. Read more here.
