Essential Media Group, LLC, who says they own the master tapes made by the fictional group the Archies, has sued Ron Dante who has alleged that he actually has the rights to the music.
The company claims that they have an agreement with Atomic Art Productions and Kirshner Records to repackage, market, distribute and license the music that was recorded for the late-60’s cartoon series Archie and Friends in which the characters formed the band the Archies.
Music mogul Don Kirshner assembled a group of studio musicians to record the music for the series including Ron Dante, Toni Wine, Jeff Berry, Andy Kim, Ellie Greenwich and Bobby Bloom. The “band” went on to score four top forty hits in the U.S. including the number 1 record Sugar Sugar.
Richard Wolfe of Wolfe Law Miami said “We are asking a judge to enter a temporary and permanent injunction prohibiting Dante from interfering with Essential’s business and contractual relationships with respect to the master recordings. We believe it is odd that he would attempt to declare ownership of the songs 48 years after the original recordings.”
He went on to say “Dante has intentionally, maliciously, and unjustifiably interfered with the relationships that Essential enjoys with its licensees by, among other things, falsely claiming that he not Essential has the rights to license the master recordings.”
The suit came about over the licensing of the track Hide and Seek to Sony Pictures Entertainment for use in the Netflix series The Get Down for a fee of $25,000.
