Page 52 of Rock On

Casey was a rock and roll legend who’d left the industry to marry an Eastern European king, but she’d started a record label that her daughter Sasha ran, and from what I gathered, Casey only got involved in the business when absolutely necessary. Apparently, this was considered absolutely necessary.

“There are a few options,” Madeline said after all the facts had been laid out. “The first, is that you pony up the money to buy the masters, though that’s probably my least favorite option.”

“We’d need to come up with what will probably be a ridiculous amount of money to buy our own music?” Kingston demanded. “Fuck that noise.”

“The other option is for you to re-record all the music,” Madeline said. “Like what Taylor Swift did.”

“That’s time we don’t have,” Z muttered.

“Not to mention more money,” Kellan added. “Though time is more precious than the money right now.”

“And the final option is to give it a year or so to see what happens and how the new owners handle everything.”

“Aurora did this to make us miserable,” Z said. “I have no doubt they’ll do everything in their power to fuck with us.”

“We’re about to go on a year-long tour,” Tommy said. “The fans want to hear ‘Promise’ and all the other songs from those albums we still play. What happens if they won’t give us permission to perform them? Then what?”

“That’s shooting themselves in the foot,” Madeline said. “If you don’t play them, they don’t get paid.”

“This all seems ludicrous to me,” Devyn said, shaking her head. “How is this even a thing? You wrote and own those songs. How can they have so much power?”

“Record labels don’t make a lot from album sales because the pot is split so many ways with writing credits, whether or not the producers got a cut, shit like that,” Kingston replied. “And that goes for the artists too. So we make the bulk of our money from touring, and they don’t get a piece of that. Instead, they do everything in their power to screw over the artists when they sign them, especially new bands.

“We had no idea we would blow up the way we did, so it didn’t occur to us to protect our masters. Not to mention, back then we couldn’t afford to buy them outright and we had no power in the industry yet. That’s why we produced everything on our own after the second album.”

“And just for the record, I have no rights to your masters with our current deal,” Casey pointed out. “I’m not in this to screw anyone over. I’m rich enough.”

“That’s one of many reasons we love you,” Kingston told her.

“Well, you’re going to have to make some difficult decisions,” Madeline interjected dryly. “We can spend money fighting this in court, but their contracts are pretty iron clad. They knew what they were doing when they had you sign them.”

“So do we put our heads in the sand and just get ready to go on tour?” Kellan asked. “Play dumb until we can’t?”

Everyone was quiet and Z let out a huff. “Should I talk to Aurora? I mean, this is all because of me dumping her.”

“This is a hell of an act of revenge over a breakup,” Madeline said. “And for what purpose? Even if you don’t play your biggest hit, you still have other hits. Lots and lots of other hits.”

“I think we play dumb short-term,” Devyn said. “Let’s just see what happens. Maybe the money is all she wants. And the knowledge that she has this perceived power over you?”

“I’m going to bet that’s not it,” Z said. “I think she wants to hurt me, and the rest of you by extension.”

“We fired her,” Kingston said. “I’m sure that stung. She’s out to hurt us collectively as a band. This goes beyond you dumping her.”

“I think we need to get in front of the song rights,” Sasha said. “We don’t want to build a whole set and play list around songs you wind up having to cut. We’ll need to redo everything if that’s the case.”

“I’ll reach out to their counsel this afternoon,” Madeline said, “and try to get a feel for what their plans are. All right? I’m signing off for now, but I’ll reach out once I have answers.”

“I’m going too,” Casey said. “It’s bedtime around here but reach out if you need me.”

“Everyone else stay on,” Sasha said. “We have a few things to go over since you’re all here.”

“I’m going to go,” I mouthed to Tommy.

He shook his head, whispering, “Stay. Please.”

I hesitated but sat back down.

I wasn’t sure why I was needed, but he’d asked me to stay, so I would.

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