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Source: Entertainment Asylum
As every teenage girl in America knows, 'NSYNC is a quintet of cute boys from Florida who like to sing and dance and who've sold a lot of records.
Of course, they're not the only quintet of cute boys from Florida--there's also the Backstreet Boys...
It can get confusing.
Both bands tasted their first success overseas before taking the domestic market by storm. Both groups have sold out concert after concert, and millions upon millions of records. And both bands are haunted by the specter of the New Kids on the Block, a boy-toy act of one decade back whose main claim to fame these
days--discounting actor Mark Wahlberg(brother of New Kid Donnie)--is how much you can get for a lunchbox with the logo on an Internet auction site.
But this week the rivalry between the two bands escalated to a new level when some contract shuffling brought 'NSYNC to the Backstreet Boys' own record label, Jive.
There are some kinds of jive you just don't take--and so, Billboard Online reports, the Backstreet Boys have served notice that they no longer consider themselves a part of the company, charging the label with breach of contract. Last year the Boys broke up with their management--in part, because their management was also repping 'NSYNC.
The Boys' paranoia makes sense if you think about it though. After all, no one else over the age of fourteen can tell the two groups apart. Why should Jive?
--Patrizia DiLucchio
Source: The Wall Street Journal (Thursday October 7, 1999)
Backstreet Boys and 'NSync Draw Record Companies Into Dizzying Dispute
By Martin Press
It's the battle of the boy bands. A simmering rivalry between 'NSync and Backstreet Boys, two hot-selling teen groups, has erupted into one of the music industry's biggest and most complex brawls. It involves two record companies and a pop-music impresario. And beneath the din of screaming teens, control of the two bands and millions of dollars in profits from their red-hot albums are up for grabs.
Battling over the right to 'NSync are Bertelsmann AG's BMG Entertainment, the world's second-biggest record company, and Zomba Recording Corp., the biggest independent music company. Until now, the two have been tight. Bertelsmann owns 20% of Zomba, distributes its records in North America and counts on Zomba for nearly a third of BMG's market share of current albums.
In the middle of it all is Louis J. Pearlman, chairman and chief executive of Trans Continental Records, Inc., the man who founded 'NSync and Backstreet Boys. At various times over the past 18 months, he has been locked in struggles with both bands over money issues.
With Mr. Pearlman quarreling with 'NSync, BMG worried about that record deal, and the band's possible d efection from its RCA label. So on a steamy weekday in mid-July, Strauss Zelnick, BMG's chief executive, spent several hours in a Times Square hotel room with the five members of 'NSync and Mr. Pearlman, trying to
smooth over their financial differences. But a few weeks later, the band ended up signing a new recording deal with Jive, a Zomba Records label.
The move of 'NSync to Jive has prompted the Backstreet Boys to try to terminate their own deal with the label, music industry executives say. The Backstreet Boys, who are known to regard 'NSync as a knockoff band, worry that Jive simply won't be able to provide the same attention and promotion it did before it added 'NSync, the executives said.
Both quintets croon the same type of syrupy tunes that light up wide-eyed girls and CD sales. The Backstreet Boys' eponymous debut album has sold 8.6 million copies, and its scond album, Millennium has sold 6.2 million copies since May. 'NSync has sold nearly seven million of its first album, released last year,
Soundscan estimates.
As the fight escalates, the record companies both claim to have 'NSync currently signed. A spokeswoman for Zomba wouldn't comment on the dispute but said that 'NSync has indeed joined the Jive label, which will provide "priority treatment" for both groups. Jeff Kwatinetz, a co-manger of the Backstreet Boys, declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pearlman himself has issues to work out with 'NSync, much as he did with the Backstreet Boys. Last October, Mr. Pearlman's Trans Continental settled a lawsuit filed by the Backstreet Boys that claimed the company took too big a share of its revenue. As part of the settlement, however, Mr. Pearlman's
company continues to earn a percentage of the band's revenue.
The deal signed by Trans Continental with 'NSync gave the company a share of the band's recording, merchandising and music publishing revenues, as well as management commissions --totalling about two-thirds of the band's revenue, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Trans Continental paid for the group's dance lessons and housing and even "gave them grocery money to live on," said Michael Friedman, Trans Continental's attorney, acknowleging that the company gets "reimbursement on their extraordinary expenses" in developing the group.
Three months after the Backstreet Boys settled their lawsuit against Trans Continental, 'NSync members, who range in age from the late teens to the early 20s, hired a lawyer to look over their agreement with Trans Continental. Several months of negotiations followed with no resolution.
Source: JAM! Music http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic
By STEPHANIE MCGRATH
JAM! Music
The Backstreet Boys allegedly broke their promise and didn't meet their fans.
The pop princes were supposed to head to the Galaxy Club in Des Plaines Ill. around 12 a.m. last night (Oct. 7).
A manager at Galaxy said the Backstreet Boys had a signed agreement with Galaxy to appear at the Club on Oct. 7th. But the boys never came.
Staff at Galaxy said they'd gotten many phone calls from excited fans about their chance to meet the boys face to face.
The club management made plans to increase security and were charging a $20.00 cover to get into the club.
All the excitement and preparation was apparently for nothing.
"Their production people were here," said the manager. "They kept saying, 'They're coming, they're coming' but all of a sudden they told us they (the Backstreet Boys) weren't coming after all."
"We had a lot of pissed off fans here last night," she said.
The nightclub is filing a lawsuit against the band for breaking their contract.
The Backstreet's management company, The Firm, wouldn't comment on the issue.
Source: Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com
The brouhaha over the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync's label troubles, explained
News that the Backstreet Boys are threatening to bolt Jive Records, reportedly because the label is wooing fellow pop idols 'N Sync (the boy wonders who themselves recently and abruptly announced their exit from RCA Records, much to that label's dismay), may have some fans wondering if anybody in the music
business honors their contract these days.
Public contract disputes are as old as the business itself, and artists often turn up the heat in order to renegotiate new financial terms for themselves. But the unfolding Jive/`N Sync/Backstreet Boys opera even has some inside the business
shaking their heads in disbelief.
The chronology, if nothing else, is simple. Two weeks ago Jive announced that it had signed `N Sync, who were disgruntled with their RCA contract. Executives at RCA's parent company BMG were furious over the move. "On a scale of one to ten, it was a ten," says one source. BMG insisted `N Sync was still under contract and was not free to simply up and leave for a new, more lucrative home. "'N Sync is a BMG act and we will protect and enforce our rights vigorously," said a company spokesperson.
Jumping labels in the middle of the game, and before fulfilling a contract, is a highly unusual move, even by music industry standards. "We're all trying to find out under what basis [`N Sync's] trying to end their contract," says one industry attorney, who is simply an observer of this dispute. "It's like the Boston Red Sox signing [Yankee outfielder] Bernie Williams and the Yankees insisting Bernie's still on their team. But contracts can be read many different ways, that's why we have
the courts."
Making matters even more complex is the fact BMG owns twenty percent of Jive, thereby turning the dispute into an unpleasant family feud.
Now comes word that the Backstreet Boys camp is looking to use that internal turmoil to their advantage, complaining about Jive signing 'N Sync (whom the BSB consider to be pale imitators), as well as BSB members not seeing enough money
from their multi-platinum sales. Suddenly, it is Jive issuing statements insisting its top-selling teen act, the Backstreet Boys, are still signed to the label.
In many ways the Backstreet Boys' bickering is much more common: a best-selling act going public with its complaints about its label deal and threatening to leave, in hopes of re-upping for more money. (Note how the highly publicized suit between
Beck and his label Geffen, filed back in April, was quietly settled earlier this week, as these types of money skirmishes almost always are.) "Everybody's seen that before," says the attorney.
What makes this scenario so compelling though (besides the intense animosity between `N Sync and the Backstreet Boys), are the extraordinary sales numbers involved. In the last two years `N Sync and the Backstreet Boys have sold a combined 21 millions albums, in America alone. For the groups' two record companies, those sales represent a profit of more than $100 million. Those sorts of money-making properties come around once every few decades and to lose one prematurely would be devastating to each record company.
But those are the headaches that accompany mega-success, says one source. The bottom line: "It all stems from people wanting more money."
ERIC BOEHLERT (October 6, 1999)
Source: JAM! Music http://www.canoe.ca/
By STEPHANIE McGRATH
The Backstreet Boys have reportedly left the label that boasts huge pop acts like Britney Spears and 'N Sync.
Reports by MTV news and Billboard online say attorneys for the band have sent a letter to Jive records that states the label is in breach of contract and the band is no longer with Jive.
The recent label dispute follows 'N Sync's label switch from RCA to Jive.
Previous reports said the Backstreet Boys were upset that 'N Sync would be on the same label. The multi-platinum pop band allegedly left their management company last year because their managers were representing 'N Sync at the same time.
A report by MTV news, however, says a spokeswoman for the band stated the Backstreet Boys don't have a problem with 'N Sync.
Although Jive and the Backstreet Boys' management company declined to comment on the label switch, there are rumours that the band members feel exploited by Jive.
In an earlier interview with MTV, band member Howie, said the band is looking for respect from the record company.
The Backstreet Boys also told MTV that legal issues won't affect their current tour and are tentatively planning another North American tourm for May and June of next year.
Source: Billboard http://www.billboard.com
Edited by Julie Taraska / October 6, 1999, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Backstreet Boys are still signed to Jive, according to a label spokesperson. Responding to yesterday's Billboard Online story, in which attorneys for Backstreet Boys' contend that the act is no longer on the imprint, the spokesperson says, "Backstreet Boys are signed to a long-term, exclusive recording agreement with Jive Records." The retort is the latest chapter in the legal battle between Jive and the multiplatinum band. Earlier, attorneys for Backstreet Boys sent a letter to Jive Records founder Clive Calder, claiming the label was in breach of contract.
Backstreet Boys are understood to be upset by the recent announcement that fellow boy-band 'N Sync will be joining them on the Jive roster, which is also home to Britney Spears. The Boys reportedly left their management company last year in part because their managers represented 'N Sync as well.
-- Melinda Newman, L.A.
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