Lawsuits Between Entertainment Companies Puts Future of Stax Records Musical(s) into Question

Last month Music Times reported that the Concord Company was looking to do a musical based on the Stax music label, a Memphis imprint that introduced the world to performers such as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Booker T & The MG's. Those plans might be held up as another company with similar plans has brought a lawsuit alleging that Concord doesn't hold the proper paperwork to authorize such a project.

Evergreen Media and Tony DeRosa-Grund were looking to create a film/musical on the story of Stax, and had made agreements with Robert Gordon—the author of Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion—and Rondor Music, which owns the publishing rights to Stax's music catalogue. The lawsuit claims that Concord owns the performance rights to the Stax discography, which doesn't give it rights to include the music in something such as a musical.

"Publishing rights" are generally defined as holding "dramatic rights," which is the ability of the rights holder to approve the use of the material (in this case the actual recording) in a production such as a film or musical. In this case, Rondor (and Universal Music, which holds Rondor) can disapprove the use of the material in Concord's Stax adaptation. However, as Concord owns the actual recording rights that means Evergreen couldn't use the official recordings in any of its projects. Evergreen planned on hiring performers to rerecord the material accordingly, so most of the problems are on Concord's side at the moment.

It's important to remember that things such as "publishing rights" and "recording rights" aren't officially defined in the legal system, but rather are merely understood within the music industry, so a court could certainly find reason to oppose the logic presented by Evergreen. Stay tuned.