Spinnin’ Records releases statement regarding Martin Garrix lawsuit

by: Eric Zwilling Dec 30, 2015

Late last summer, Martin Garrix took to Facebook to announce that he would be splitting from Spinnin’ Records and Music All-Stars management and publishing for a variety of reasons. The standard “disagreement” reasoning was provided, mainly regarding the ownership of his music, but little else was said regarding the details behind the split. Spinnin’ Records and its parent company Music All-Stars have finally released a statement further defining the reasons as to why they will be pursuing legal action against Garrix.

In the release, MAS and Spinnin’ state that Garrix has simply breached his contract. When initially signing the contracts, the deals were vetted thoroughly, and as a minor, Garrix even had his father also sign each and every agreement. Spinnin’, while explaining that Garrix’s father is a substantially successful businessman, stated that Garrix and his team were invited to shop the deals around and have the agreements inspected. The company paints the picture to be a clean and clear-cut contract.

They further explain that, of course, Martin Garrix has been a significant investment, as well as an unquestionable success. As the saying goes, “it takes money to make money,” and it is clear that Spinnin’ put valuable resources into their workings with Garrix. They proceed to explain that, while there are minimal hard-feelings from Spinnin’ and MAS to Garrix’s camp, they still signed a contract, and one that they are specifically required to fulfill given laws of contractual liability.

Allegedly, the contracts stated that MAS and Spinnin’ would hold the management, ownership, and distribution rights for Martin Garrix and his musical work products until July 1st, 2017 at the very least. As Garrix has chosen to breach these contracts, MAS and Spinnin’ hold that they deserve compensation. Although the language is slightly difficult to interpret, it appears that Garrix’s previously released music has been re-contracted with Spinnin’ Records, and will be distributed by them until 2023.

For those interested, you can read the entire statement below. As per usual with legal and business dealings in music, it is unlikely fans will notice a difference in the end product – specifically releases and performances, from Garrix himself.

Please note we have made minor corrections to the grammar on the official statement, as the translation was a bit rough around the edges.

Background information on the Martin Garrix-Spinnin’ Records dispute

Spinnin’ Records and MusicAllStars Management (“MAS”) regularly receive inquiries on the dispute with Martin Garrix.

On the 26th August 2015 Martijn Garritsen posted a message on Facebook, announcing he was unilaterally terminating his contracts with Spinnin’ Records and MusicAllStars Management (MAS). With this, he made it clear for everyone he would no longer keep himself to his contracts with us and unilaterally ended our collaboration which was still to continue until July 1st 2017.

From early 2015 we have freely spoken with Martijn Garritsen about his wish to re-negotiate the existing contracts and in our vision, improper arguments were used to put pressure on the discussions. It was even mentioned ‘fraud’ had been used by us to move Martijn Garritsen to close contracts with us in 2012. Of course we completely disagree; Martijn Garritsen, his father Gerard Garritsen, a very experienced business man, and their team have always let themselves be advised, have widely researched the market and shopped around for deals and always had time and room for negotiation to come to well considered decisions. Moreover all agreements have been negotiated in detail and were also signed by father Gerard Garritsen.
The years of cooperation have always went well and brought success to all parties until the end.

Even though we were not obligated to do so, we negotiated and came close to new contracts with Martijn Garritsen, but we could not meet each other on new terms in the end- which can happen between two professional parties. We do not blame Martijn Garritsen, but this does not mean that he could unilaterally end or nullify all existing contracts, as he did with his post on Facebook. Contracts are contracts and need to be respected.

As everyone knows, Martijn Garritsen’s career has lived through fantastic developments since 2012, when our agreements commenced. Martin Garrix has grown to become one of the most important DJs in the world, even before he turned twenty years old. These years have been intense for us, no efforts and no expenses were spared, and have led to a great amount of wonderful releases. The whole team of Spinnin’ Records and MAS have worked with their heart and soul for Martijn Garritsen.

Parties have agreed now that the releases will be exploited by Spinnin’ Record at least until 2023.

Remains to be settled between the parties is the financial compensation for the collaboration which was unilaterally terminated by Martijn Garritsen. This is what Martijn Garritsen meant in a recent press release, saying “the remaining differences of opinion between parties will most probably be subject of further legal proceedings”. MAS would take care of management until at least 1 July 2017. And Spinnin’ Records would exclusively release and exploit all tracks of Martijn Garritsen until that date.
As this is not happening anymore, Spinnin’ Records as well as MAS will lose lawful income. No hard feelings, but we do want to be compensated – nothing more, nothing less.
That is part of a decent and professional settlement of what was a successful relationship.