Management for 23-year old DJ Martin Garrix has issued a statement following their court win after a four-year legal battle over ownership of Martin’s early recordings.
A court has ruled that Garrix owns the masters to his 2014 and 2015 releases ‘Gold Skies’ and ‘Break Through The Silence’.
Garrix first took MusicAllStars Management (MAS) and Spinnin’ Records to court claiming they were given ‘false and misleading information’ when he signed the original contract.
The contract was to go through until 2017 but Garrix broke it in 2015. The court has confirmed he was in his rights to do so.
The full statement from Martin Garrix Management:
Martijn Garritsen owns all rights including Masterownership in his complete
music catalogueAfter several media publications and requests for a response regards Mr. van Kooten’s statement this week, Martin Garrix’ management has decided to response as follows:
Firstly, it is important to understand that Martijn Garritsen started these proceedings against MusicAllStars Management (MAS) and Spinnin’ Records because in 2015 his co-management Scooter Braun Projects and his counsels did not succeed in coming to agreement about the return and future ownership of Martijn’s master-rights and his current management contract.
Martijn thus no longer had faith in a collaboration with MAS, because of Mr Van Kooten’s conflicts of interest. Mr. Van Kooten refused any reasonable cooperation which forced Martijn to unilaterally cancel the agreements with MAS and Spinnin’ and, if that did not work, to terminate them as of July 30, 2015. For that termination, Martijn’s lawyers put forward various grounds. The Court of Lelystad recognized error as the first ground for cancellation of the agreements and on that basis, the contracts were terminated. Furthermore, the Court ruled that Martijn is the phonogram producer and therefore all rights to his tracks belong to him and not to Spinnin’ Records.
The result of accepting error as grounds for termination was that Spinnin’ and MAS had to financially compensate Martijn. MAS and Spinnin’ appealed and the Court of Appeals confirmed the judgment that Martijn is the phonogram producer and all rights to his tracks belongs to him. Instead of error, the court of appeal ruled on other grounds that Martijn had put forward, that Martijn was entitled to terminate his contracts per 30 July 2015 and that they did not continue until 30 July 2017 as MAS and Spinnin’ claimed.
With the Court of Appeal’s decision, Martijn received what he wanted in the first place: to be recognized as master owner/ phonogram producer and a confirmation that he did not have to serve out his contracts until 30 July 2017. The first is particularly important to him because he hopes that other young artists will realize what their (music) rights are. Already four years ago, Martijn stated that the protection of fellow musicians was an important reason for him to take up this fight, and in that sense, Martijn is pleased with the outcome.
The Court of Appeals has ruled that MAS will be compensated for some outstanding items for their work from January 2015 to July 30, 2015 (which is not special) and that Spinnin’ Records will not receive any compensation.MAS and Spinnin’ did thus not gain anything with these cases except that they have incurred enormous costs for themselves and Martijn. If they had agreed back in 2015 with the reasonable requests of Martijn, this could all have been prevented.
We trust to have answered all questions and wish everyone a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2020.
Management Martin Garrix
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