RED STAR RECORDS v. HEINEKEN MUSIC INITIATIVE, Part
2
by Marty Thau, [February 15, 2004]
 [HollywoodInvestigator.com] Remember the
dispute between punk producer Marty Thau and the Heineken Beer Company,
when Thau claimed Heineken's usage of the Red Star
Records name was a violation of his rights?
Heineken responded
and claimed they didn't intentionally or maliciously violate anyone's rights,
that since Thau hadn't trademarked the Red Star Records name back in 1977 they assumed it was free and clear, and since their beer
bottle logo is a red star it made perfect marketing sense to call themselves
Red Star Records now that they were in the record business.
Well, Heineken
didn't do its homework, because even without federal trademark registration,
Thau is protected under "common law rights," having operated as Red
Star Records for 26 years and releasing records by such seminal
punk artists as the Ramones, New York Dolls, Suicide, Richard Hell and
Blondie in the process. Red Star might have been small, but it wasn't
invisible.
Thau agreed to
settle this dispute amicably, proposing that Heineken use the name Red
Star Sounds instead of Records and only release a limited number of urban music CDs per year with the
acknowledgment that their Red Star entity was a nonprofit corporation designed
to benefit urban musicians and not to be confused with Thau's Red
Star Records, a rock and roll label. But it didn't quite work
out that way.
Heineken is not
living up to its bargain and sticking to their urban music pledge. Thau contends that Red
Star Sounds is now violating the terms of their agreement by
sponsoring and promoting rock videos on Canada's Much Music TV network
under the Red
Star Sounds banner. Where this all goes remains to be
seen.
The big trend
on Mad Avenue is for beverage companies to jump on the downloading bandwagon
and
offer free music premiums on bottle caps and labels. Apple Computer
has inked a deal with Pepsi to give away 100 million downloads in a promotion
that kicked off with a Super Bowl ad. Miller Brewing will give away
Napster branded digital music players next summer, and other beverage suppliers,
MP3 player manufacturers, airlines, and credit card companies are also
getting in on the act. Pepsi works closely with Sony Music, and Coca-Cola
has a similar relationship with the Universal Music Group.
It seems that
brand marketers, especially beverage companies, are hoping to establish
broad connections between music and their products, and marketers are looking
at all sorts of models for hitching their wagons to digital music. Some, like Heineken, are sponsoring rock music programming.
Copyright © 2004 by Marty Thau
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