Latin Music Litigation | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Billboard dot Com has this article up. Here are Latin music's biggest lawsuits and legal cases, including Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, and more. I remember Daddy Yankee, and of course we all know Bad Bunny. It says here. Latin music stars are facing big legal battles, including a massive reggae tone case, a nasty divorce turned rico suit, and a looming fight over a leaked sex tape. Oh my goodness, Well, so much going on in the world of Latin music. For some reason, that seems to be the most litigious genre at the moment, which is why we're talking about it.

0:37 There's always like hip hop always has a lot of lawsuits, and you know, and there's always there's always lawsuits in every genre of music. But right now Latin music seems to be where a lot of attorneys are able to charge legal fees. It says here. Latin music is as popular as ever, which is true. As a genre, it's really exploded. So it makes sense that stars like Bad Bunny are embroiled in a growing number of major legal battles in US courts. As the old music lawyer adage goes, where there's a hit, there's a writ In other words, where there's where there's hit songs, there's money to be made and someone to sue very often.

1:16 The genre has boomed in recent years, becoming the fastest growing core music genre in the US and hitting a record breaking one point four billion in revenue in twenty twenty four, making the genre's third consecutive year passing one billion dollars. The Recording Industry Association of America's Matt Bass said in an October report, quote, Latin music is the in the US continues to gain popularity and generate generate increased value thanks to the incredible artists whose music connects across language and geographical barriers.

2:03 Unquote. All that explosive growth again, this is from Billboard. All that explosive, explosive growth has been fueled not only by the global superstardom of Bad Bunny, who played this year's Super Bowl and cleaned up at the Grammy Awards, but also by the rise of artists like Colombian star Carol g or Carole. It might be Corole. I'm not sure, ka r o L. It looks like Carol, but it might probably not. Carol doesn't sound like a particularly Latin sounding name, does it, Carol, it's probably corole g and regional Mexican powerhouses, and I'm sure I'm going to butcher these apologize in advance.

2:44 Fuere's a Regeda and or Regeta and pezo Pluma or peso pluma. But with great success comes great disputes. Reggaetne stars like Bad Bunny himself for facing unprecedented liation over how key elements of their music are covered by copyright laws. This is where it gets interesting and something we talk about all the time on the show. This always comes up, copyright infringement, copyright laws, intellectual property, all of it. Especially with the rise of AI. Other big names like Dell Records founder Angel DVR are fighting criminal charges that could put them behind bars for years.

3:27 Still, others like Daddy Yankee are using the courts to bring their own stunning allegations against others. To get you up to speed, here's Billboard's quick guide to Latin music's major lawsuits, criminal cases, and legal battles. We break down five major cases and everything you need to know about them, followed by five more key legal disputes to watch in the months ahead. So I don't know that we'll get through all these. We'll try to speed through these because there's a lot here. Okay, so reggae tones jaw dropping copyright case, this is the first one.

4:02 There is no bigger Latin music legal battle than the sprawling copyright lawsuit over the origins of reggaetnes dembo rhythm.

4:13 The boom of boom boom chick, boom of boom chick used in nearly Oh yeah, it used in nearly every song in the genre. Yeah, you know exactly what I'm even though I know exactly even though I'm butchered it. We all know exactly what that is because we all hear it. You know, if you're in Manchester on a summer day when everyone's got their windows down in their cars, you'll certainly hear that coming out of many many cars. We hear it in our neighborhood quite a bit. That If you don't know what that is, let me see if I can do it again, but but not do it so clumsily.

4:46 The boom che boom chick, boom che boom chick use. And I wish I knew how to beatbox, I could replicate that perfectly. But you all know what that is. The case claims that crucial Now, this is interesting. I've wondered about this. So the case here claims that that crucial element was essentially stolen from a single nineteen eighty nine song, and that it's time for the music business to pay up. So that beat, that rhythm that you hear in all those reggaetone songs that you hear coming out of everybody's cars in the summertime, that's really that young.

5:22 I thought it was older than Somebody has traced that back to a single from nineteen eighty nine and says pay me. The scale of the case is staggering. It targets bad Bunny Corol, I still say, I'm gonna say Corol, G Daddy Yankee and more than one hundred and fifty other artists as defendants, plus units of all three major music companies, claiming that nearly two thousand of their songs were illegal. If successful, it would mean that almost all reggaetone artists would need to pay licensing fees to use are aspect of the genre.

6:01 I don't think this lawsuits going to be successful to you, especially, I think it's that young, especially since now there will be dispute over this detail. By the way, We're definitely not gonna get through all these, but this one's fascinating to me. We might just stay on this one for a while.

6:20 Gene Simmons was saying it was in you know, when he the little controversy it blew over fairly quickly about who wrote the song Beth, and he was saying Peter didn't really write it, and Jane was making some rather ignorant comments about Peter's not a real musician because he's a drummer, so he's not technically a musician because you can't. You can't copyright, you can't trademark a beat like you can a melody or something, which actually is definitely not true. He's wrong about that. I'm sure there are very specific, very specific beats that have been copy copyright Well, that's you're talking about a bassline.

6:58 But but I'm sure I can't think of a really gonna be a baseline and a drum No, but but but how can you call a drummer not a musician the same? Right? His comment was very very ignorant and he does know better. But but but I'm sure, I'm sure it's happened. I'm sure there have been specific beats have been copyrighted. But to but to, I mean, how's this gonna going? How are you gonna You're gonna sue all? You're gonna basically sue an entire genre over over a beat that is very common money grap So it says here.

7:33 As experts previously told Billboard, the case could have a disruptive effect on reggae tone Yeah no kidding, a booming genre that's risen alongside Bad Bunny from the clubs of Puerto Rico to the very top of the global music business. This case is jaw dropping, said Jennifer Jenkins, a Duke University law professor. Quote. If they win, this would confer a monopoly over an entire genre. Vote. A judge refused to dismiss the case in twenty twenty four, and following a key hearing in December, it's now primed for a major ruling on crucial questions, which will determine whether the lawsuit is dismissed or can move ahead to a jury trial.

8:15 Stay tuned. I predict it's dismissed. I hope though, because that would be quite a bit of waste of money, waste of time. Yes, we'll try to privolous. Oh yeah, we'll try to get a couple more of these and Daddy Yankees bombshell divorce battle. I don't even remember what Daddy Yankee's big hit was. I mean, we're like in the Yankees. No, no, damn no, this is damn Yankees is not a Latin band. Oh yeah, sorry, no, Daddy Yankee, Daddy Yankee, I don't remember what the big hit were. I remember, I can't hear anything out of my writing, I know.

8:43 In December twenty twenty four, Daddy Yankee again this is from Billboard, filed for divorce from his wife of thirty years. The two have been duking it out in court ever since, not just over the marriage dissolution, but the bombshell accusations of stolen money, defamation, and racketeering. A few weeks after the divorce started, Yankee sought an injunction over accusations that I'm gonna butcher this. MERIDIESE. Gonzales had withdrawn tens of millions from his El Cartel Records, his record company.

9:16 Then in March twenty twenty five, he fouled the lawsuit, claiming he discovered mismanagement and a defamatory campaign by Gonzalez, though that case later settled. Daddy Yankee went nuclear in December, filing a Rico lawsuit against Gonzalez and his former manager Rayfie Pina or Pena, of scheming to steal songwriting royalties during a nearly decade long racketing conspiracy in which they quote systematically inappropriate misappropriated publishing income unquote. Her lawyer denied the accusations at the time, telling Billboard they were a fabrication created by Daddy Yankee to gain a tactical advantage in their divorce proceedings, but the case remained pending.

10:01 Uh. Okay, this one we're gonna skip. I'm gonna we have limited time. We're gonna get one more in, but I'm gonna find I want to find one that looks like it's quick and uh, the sex tape one will skip because it's a Saturday morning morning. Yeah, all right, let's do this other bad bunny one quickly. Yes, I was gonna re mentioned mosaic. Yeah, let's do that. I'll tell you what. We'll share the link out to this article on social media because there are some other interesting cases. But I think we we tackled the h the two that are the most interesting.

10:38 But it's at billboard dot com. The title of the article is here are Latin music's biggest lawsuits and legal cases, including Bad Bunny, Daddy, Yankee, and more So. We do love a good uh, a good lawsuit in the music industry. It's always fascinating and there's always somebody issuing somebody. It's a very re litigious industry.