Radio Caught In Lawrence Controversy

David M Ross – 06/06/2007

“This is nothing more than an issue between a major label and radio,” says CO5 VP National Promotion David Newmark regarding the current Tracy Lawrence single “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” currently Top 5 on both the BB and MB charts. “That issue is whether radio has the right to play an album cut.” But the issue is more complicated than Newmark allows.

Lawrence’s album For The Love contains two versions of the song. One version includes guest performances from superstars Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw and was not licensed to be used as a single at radio. The other version features only Lawrence. Obviously, having two guest superstars makes a song more attractive to radio, but is it unfair to the guest artists who may also be soliciting airtime with their own music? In fact both McGraw and Chesney have active singles climbing the charts. “We never serviced the trio version to radio as a single, or sent out an MP3, or advertised the song as a trio,” adds Newmark.

But the album, which contains the trio version, was indeed serviced to radio. Adding to the confusion is the fact that neither BDS or Mediabase is able to distinguish between the two tracks. So it is impossible to know for sure which version is being aired on any one station. However, it is quite reasonable to assume that the trio version is by far most popular.

Sony BMG sent a letter to country radio today (6/6) explaining to stations: “SBMG did not grant ‘singles’ rights to Rocky Comfort Records with respect to the album version of this song and has not authorized any radio station to play this recording. SBMG demands that you immediately cease such unauthorized broadcasting.” SBMG has not offered any additional comments on the situation.

Is this a situation where a label is enforcing its legal right to all vocal performances of its artist (Chesney)? More importantly, is there any legal basis on which to demand that radio not play a commercially available album track? Did Rocky Comfort unfairly exceed the spirit of its licensing agreement? Why did SBMG wait until now to when the song is already Top 5 to complain? And lastly, how will this controversy effect the single’s chances to reach No. 1?