Label news: Naxos sues China platform
NewsCMU reports that Naxos has filed suit in Tennessee against Kuke Music, a classical subscription service in China. It claims Kuke owes $1.9 million in unpaid fees.
CMU says: The legal dispute is presumably problematic for the Beijing-based New York-listed Kuke, which has struggled to comply with New York Stock Exchange rules of late due to its slumping share price.
Murkier still, “a director of Kuke is the controlling shareholder” of parent company Naxos One.
Read the full story here.
I think I am correct in adding that Naxos has not been wary about going to court if concerned about recording issues. There was at one time a website allegedly featuring hundreds of recordings by an unknown orchestra conducted by an unknown conductor (names withheld only for legal reasons). When a colleague asked me to listen to a few of the recordings, the very first I heard, the Overture to Don Giovanni, had nothing to do with the alleged participants – it was Solti’s version with the LPO. Others I listened to included a Berlioz Symphony by Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw and Schubert by Abbado and the LSO. The ABO was perfectly aware of this site and from what I heard seemed to do little about it.
Another ‘fake’ was a Naxos recording of The Four Seasons. Naxos took the site to court which had to be heard in Edinburgh. Again if I remember correctly, Naxos lost the case on a technicality, but I hope other contributors can corrrect this if I am wrong.