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Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ Pulled From YouTube

After lawyers for Rebecca Black submitted a take-down notice, Friday’s national anthem has been pulled off YouTube. Dear God, now how will I remember whether or not Saturday comes after Friday and if Sunday comes afterwards?! This comes a few days after Ark Music Factory tried to profit even more off her recording by charging a $2.99 rental fee.

The take-down notice stems from a contract dispute between Ark Music Factory and Rebecca Black. While big labels will lock down an artist, Ark was more of a recording studio for hire allowing artists to make vanity recordings for a fee. Essentially, Ark doesn’t own Rebecca Black like a big label would even though they act like they do.

Black says Ark never released her master recordings as promised in her contract, never attained the rights to advertise her as an exclusive Ark artist and have been trying to commercially exploit the song in derivatives.

But if Ark was really more like a recording studio for hire rather than a recording label, it likely gave little thought to how it would support Black’s career through publicity and marketing expenditures. Instead, Ark took a few hundred dollars from Black’s mother to let the 13-year-old record a song, probably without the slightest expectation of any further reward.

Now that the song has hit it big, the equation has obviously changed, and the parties are fussing over who owns which rights, which will help determine the slicing of the royalty pie. If the parties don’t come to an agreement, only a court’s inspection of the contract will settle the matter. [THR]

Now I have to find a new song to help me decide which seat to take. Do I take the empty one or one of the others? I’m so confused!

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12 years ago
Suxlikebieber
Suxlikebieber
12 years ago

When does the house fall on this witch?