Rising deep house star
Sascha Dive was publicly criticized in the middle of last month in an
email sent out by founder/A&R of
Third Ear Recordings, Guy McCreery.
Guy has explained to RA that he made the decision essentially "to warn artists to always make sure you know who you are dealing with," after failing to receive credit for the inclusion of Third Ear track Norm Talley's "Exodus (Beatdown Brothers remix)" on Dive's
In the Streets compilation.
"I thought long and hard before sending out the email," Guy admits, "and I don't think it's necessarily the best way to go about it, but since we don't have the luxury of affording lawyers, you have to make use of the resources you do have."
By waiving any licensing fee, the label agreed to the inclusion of the track on the vinyl edition as a promotional move, but any benefit was lost when the track wasn't credited to Third Ear. Deep Vibes even went so far as to refer to the track as "exclusive and unreleased" on a press release sent out by the label and also sell it digitally, which McCreery claims they had no right to do.
"This is deception," says Guy. "Dance music is generally free of all this stuff. I wanted to highlight that it's vital for there to be an implicit moral framework in the independent music sector. There is a lot of hard work going on, so it's not right that certain people succeed by deception."
The Third Ear boss is proud and protective of the work that's gone into building the sound of their successful
Detroit Beatdown compilations to the point where DJs like Sascha want to license it, but with the dispute now public, the experience has turned somewhat sour all round.
We've tried to speak to Sascha Dive for his side of the story, but we're told that rather than make any more public statements, he has sent his reply direct to Guy.
Hopefully they've now kissed and made up, but if this episode has helped fledgling dance artists/labels become more aware of being justly credited (and this includes ensuring they are sending the relevant info to the DJs on time too), then it will have been a worthwhile spat.
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