Dr. Luke Cut From Sony Roster

[Main Pop Girl]

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Sony Music is distancing itself from Dr. Luke (Lukasz Gottwald) after a long relationship that generated dozens of smash hits for stars including Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and Miley Cyrus, as well as controversy when rape allegations were made by Kesha Rose Sebert.

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Together, Sony and Dr. Luke established Kemosabe Records in 2011, after the former Saturday Night Live musician gained prominence for producing such songs as Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl." The deal gave Dr. Luke extraordinary creative control in return for exclusive rights to his services as a producer. The label didn't have too many hits — R. City's "Locked Away" was one — but Dr. Luke did continue to churn out chart-toppers for Sony's roster including Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" and Pitbull's "Timber."

Nevertheless, in October 2014, Kesha came forward to accuse Dr. Luke of once forcing her to take a date-rape drug and then proceeding to take advantage of her in a hotel room. She also claimed that Dr. Luke had exerted "suffocating control" over her life for a decade, bombarding her with insults about her looks and denying her meaningful profits from her work, which included the multiplatinum single "Tik Tok."

Dr. Luke filed his own defamation claim against Kesha and framed her attempt to extradite herself from record and publishing contracts as extortion. But soon came a social media "Free Kesha" campaign, which went viral and raised the profile of her claims significantly.

A New York judge rejected Kesha's attempt at an injunction so that she could work away from the auspices of Dr. Luke, then threw out her "hate crime" counterclaims, then denied her a second attempt at counterclaims premised on an alleged breach of contract. Last week, Kesha filed a notice of appeal on a nixed bid to impose California's seven-year limit on personal service contracts — marking the third pending appeal in this Kesha-Luke dispute before a New York appeals court.

 

Now, Dr. Luke's relationship with Sony is under a microscope, and according to one source, the two sides are in the midst of negotiating a split. Another insider pushes back on the notion of a divorce. But according to court papers, he is no longer the CEO of Kemosabe Records and the company asserts he no longer has authority to act on its behalf. A page devoted to Dr. Luke on Sony Music's website has also been taken down.

Attorneys for Dr. Luke and Sony declined to comment. Kesha's reps were unavailable for comment.

Although any split would be seen in some respects as a victory for the "Free Kesha" movement, there are two potential problems for Kesha. First, in her own court papers, she previously cited reports that Sony's deal with Dr. Luke was imminently about to end and warned the judge that she'd no longer have Sony as a go-between, making her situation worse. Second, Dr. Luke's defamation claims against her are still pending, and in advance of the trial, his attorneys have been collecting evidence about how his career has suffered as a result of her rape allegations. Certainly, the culmination of Dr. Luke's deal with Sony will be spotlighted as the case moves forward.

 

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So she didn't win in court, but it looks like Kesha has won in the court of public opinion.  

It's a shame to say good bye to such a great producer but no one will work with him anymore and he hasn't had a hit in a while, which is I'm sure the reason why Sony is cutting all ties.

[liberation]

I know he's not convicted and probably will never be, but i wouldn't support anything produced by him these days. Now i think Kesha is as fucked as ever. All this situation seems to be getting so much more complicated, i'm afraid we won't get to hear her new stuff so soon 

[VEENX]

[Tweener]

I hope Kesha found a great new producer. It's sad to mention, but all kesha's bops we love have been produced by dr. Luke. He's undeniably a great producer. I wonder what she has in store for us now that Luke is out

[Capsule]

  On 4/26/2017 at 1:36 PM, Tweener said:

I hope Kesha found a great new producer. It's sad to mention, but all kesha's bops we love have been produced by dr. Luke. He's undeniably a great producer. I wonder what she has in store for us now that Luke is out

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Depending on the wording in her contract, she may still be stuck under Dr. Luke. She was only signed to Sony through Luke's label, so now that the deal is done, it's uncertain right now if Kesha is in a better or worse situation. Depending on her contract's wording, she may now just be stuck under an exclusive contract with Luke who no longer has major label affiliation. But, if Kesha is now just stuck to THE LABEL, it may end up working in her favor and she can just hopefully work better with whoever takes over control of Kemosabe.

Sadly it seems like the former is true, and she may just be stuck under Luke's control fully now. But it all remains tbd.

[Main Pop Girl]

  On 4/26/2017 at 4:34 PM, Capsule said:

Depending on the wording in her contract, she may still be stuck under Dr. Luke. She was only signed to Sony through Luke's label, so now that the deal is done, it's uncertain right now if Kesha is in a better or worse situation. Depending on her contract's wording, she may now just be stuck under an exclusive contract with Luke who no longer has major label affiliation. But, if Kesha is now just stuck to THE LABEL, it may end up working in her favor and she can just hopefully work better with whoever takes over control of Kemosabe.

Sadly it seems like the former is true, and she may just be stuck under Luke's control fully now. But it all remains tbd.

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But Kesha really screwed herself in the court case, because she said that even if she never had to work with Dr. Luke again she still wanted to be dropped from Sony. Her label was willing to make arrangements for her to work with other producers but she denied them. So either way, I don't think that this is going to get us any closer to the elusive album we're all hoping for.  

[britneyspearsfeatmadonna]

Good.

[Teleboobies]

At the end, he will be a ghost producer...

[Main Pop Girl]

  On 6/26/2017 at 7:01 PM, Teleboobies said:

At the end, he will be a ghost producer...

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I wonder if you're right...  It would be interesting to know if he's even worked on some songs we're all unknowingly bopping to on the radio right now.

[Teleboobies]

  On 7/27/2017 at 8:37 PM, Countess said:

I wonder if you're right...  It would be interesting to know if he's even worked on some songs we're all unknowingly bopping to on the radio right now.

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He probably is. Unfortunately, that's how industry works. You can't deny that he did a lot of hits this last decade. Ppl will still work with him. But he probably will be a ghost producer. I remember reading somewhere Rise by Katy was produced by him, but idk if it's true.

[Main Pop Girl]

  On 7/27/2017 at 9:54 PM, Teleboobies said:

He probably is. Unfortunately, that's how industry works. You can't deny that he did a lot of hits this last decade. Ppl will still work with him. But he probably will be a ghost producer. I remember reading somewhere Rise by Katy was produced by him, but idk if it's true.

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That's interesting... Honestly at this point I'm sure he has enough money from Kemosabe and all his productions that he wouldn't have to work a day more in his life, but it would be interesting to know if he's still behind the scenes somewhere.