I can see the headlines now:
Harmony Sonora and Riff Hurley con fans out of millions in joint effort to double projected record sales
Music industry romance sham exposed, public outraged
Hurley and Sonora canceled after failed dating publicity stunt
My pulse hums with a panicked energy.
I don’t understand, though. What does it matter to FM Sound what Harmony and I do?Hersuccess would betheirsuccess. Of course they can’t take more than the single slice they already own—her early albums—but it’s not like they’d get a bigger slice by crushing her fanbase.
Unless there’s something else they want.
“What are they trying to get out of you?” I try to keep my voice from a raging volume. “This is a huge threat, and I’m not seeing where their payoff would be.”
Wringing her fingers, she explains in greater detail her history with her former label—their refusal to even sell the masters in the beginning, the strategies she used to lessen their profits from her work, the way they punished her for that. And then she tells me their latest move: “Dana said they’ll ruin me if I don’t get Glambam to back off the purchase.”
There it is.
Naturally I ask all the logical questions. Why even make the masters available for sale if they don’t want to sell them—or at least raise the price? And if they don’t want to look like the greedy assholes they are, why not just anonymously leak the documents and let Harmony fall, tanking her sales to ensure that Glambam won’t follow through on the purchase anyway? Why go to Harmony first and give her any semblance of a choice in the matter?
Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad there’s a chance to stop the leak. But it doesn’t make sense.
“They want good artists to sign with them, which means FM Sound can’t afford to be openly hostile to me about my masters anymore,” she confirms. “That’s why they’re demanding that I make it look like I’m choosing to walk away from the sale. It protects their public image. As far as an anonymous leak, they acknowledge that hurting me hurts them too—although if I don’t cooperate, they’re willing to take a hit if fans boycott my first twoalbums along with my new music, because owning my legacy work gives them a ton of clout either way. Still, it’s better for all parties involved if I do cooperate, and thus they approached me with the ‘opportunity.’”
I stand and pace the length of the bed a few times, tugging at my hair.
What the fuck is wrong with these people?
“We can’t let FM Sound get away with this,” I finally say.
“What do you mean? Of course we can.” Harmony half-chokes on a sob. “We have to. There’s no alternative.”
“We can tell Charles. Glambam has legal power.”
“I don’t know who we can even trust at Glambam, who might be reporting to FM Sound from within our walls. Dana said if she gets word that I’m talking to lawyers, she’ll leak the documents for that too. Or if I try to sabotage the value of my masters—even if I just record a ‘Harmony’s Version’ of any of my songs. She’s got a sniper rifle pointed at my forehead, Griffin.”
“So, what, we just … do what she says?”
“Not ‘we,’” Harmony says. “‘I.’ I’m the one who signed with FM Sound afterLucky Stars. It’s my masters they’re fighting to keep. I’m the one their Head of Catalog approached. This ismyproblem.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what? Take responsibility for—”
“Try to deal with this on your own. You’re not the one who suggested the dating stunt. It’s Glambam’s fault that we have anything to hide. We agreed to do it, yes, under pressure, but it’s not all on us and definitely not on you alone. I don’t care if you’re the one FM Sound came to. You and I were a team even before we liked each other, so we’re going to deal with this together.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible.”
“If you don’t think Glambam has any sway here, and a legal team is too risky—”
“There’s no proof anyway,” she interjects.
“—then there’s only one thing left to do.”
“What?”
“Tell the truth,” I say. “We’ll do a press statement and tell everyone it started as apromotional strategy—not a ‘stunt,’ because word choice is crucial here.”
