DRASTIC (Book 4 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 74: Smart Girls Keep A Journal

A/N Special thanks to @mlaw16 who gave me a wonderful tutorial on copyright and contract law last night in regards to Soundrush's dispute with Sid Stoltz. I found it so fascinating I expounded upon it in this chapter. I know so many of you like the "realism" of the industry stuff, so I think you will enjoy it too. Any errors in interpretation are entirely my own, and should not be interpreted as actual legal advice from  of our new cameo character "Jen Proctor"  or her real-life alter ago....wink!

This is a BIG chapter for Trace. Like the biggest chapter he's had in a while. I know we sometimes don't love his behavior but people in pain lash out, and our favorite boy has had a lot to deal with in his tender young life, too. Bodie has been through his stuff but we have to remember Bodie had a  safe home. All his trauma was external...outside those four walls. Trace lived in anxiety and occasional  fear inside his home as a child....

 So here we go...big time jump, year in review as seen through Doc Gorgeous' eyes,  and this chapter relates a big turning point for Trace....

Marley, Fifteen months later (December)

So much has happened.

In the midst of the disastrous Soundcrush-Sid Stoltz Sessions, as they came to be known, I starting keeping a journal. I detailed all of Soundcrush's professional happenings. In case Trace, or maybe Bodie, or anyone in the band really, ever wants to write a memoir. I'll gladly redact a copy of my journal for them, because there are personal entries, too.

Some days, Doc Gorgeous looks back on the highlights, trying to figure out what parts of the last year will be important in Soundcrush's legacy. Some days, I look at it through Jasmine's eyes, and wonder if the damage Soundcrush has weathered is but a precursor to the full force of the private storm still raging in my personal life with Bodie.

Today I feel like I'm wearing bifocals, trying to piece it all together, and see where we go from here.

Maybe the trouble really got going with the name of the album. Leed made up fake and funny stories about the name Fuck Charon in the press, but not one band member ever thought it was funny, and there was no joy in them when they promoted it. The name was bitter on their tongues and it showed on their faces.

Maybe the blame for that really does lie with Sid Stoltz. Maybe he delivered a grievous wound and even now, none of us are really sure if Soundcrush is going to survive.

It's hard to say if Sid's influence on band morale was most impactful during their weeks of studio time, or how much his toxic influence eventually effected the resulting album. The one that eventually rose from the ashes of his firestorm of threatened litigation, I mean.

Trace and Riley spent a couple of tense days in LA talking things over with Colossal's legal team. There was a lot of back and forth about whether the issue was a copyright or a contract issue, and whether or not Sid could win the case.

Moran brought Trace to the table with Jen Proctor—a young ambitious attorney on Colossal's copyright team...whom Trace had never met before, because he doesn't like to use Colossal's counsel for negotiating any contracts that don't specifically have fall under our distribution agreements with them. He thinks it gives them too much power to act as proxy in any of our band business.

Jen was a lovely and ambitious associate who efficiently, but good-naturedly explained to Trace—more than once—that Sid's contract language did not stipulate whether his monetary rights to the songs were derived from the arrangements or the specific recordings that he would produce. And without that specificity the position could be argued—and would be argued by Sid's attorneys if the suit went to court— that he was in fact a creative collaborator and that his contract entitled him royalty rights as such. And that was the point that could easily land this case in court.