Two years ago, in a pre-litigation move,(Courtney) Love circulated a well-known letter to fellow recording artists about a “fair deal” from the record labels. In her letter she cited TLC and Toni Braxton as “multi-platinum artists” who had “been forced to declare bankruptcy because their recording contracts didn’t pay them enough.” (Love’s trial comes at an interesting time: June is Black Music Month.)
TLC sold millions of albums for LaFace Records (a unit of Bertelsmann Music Group). Yet Lopes, Tionne Watkins, and Rozonda Thomas were only taking home modest sums of money compared to the hefty sums they made for Pebbitone Management, LaFace, and BMG. Federal bankruptcy laws would have allowed them to extricate themselves from their onerous contract, but they settled out of court. The recording industry, however, nervous at the prospect of other artists using TLC’s and Braxton’s settlement strategy,had the federal bankruptcy laws amended.
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