Virgin Sues '30 Seconds To Mars' For $30 Million

by Jarrett Martineau | August 18, 2008 at 08:17 am | 773 views | 14 comments | 6 recommendations

Jared Leto's band 30 Seconds To Mars is being sued by Virgin Records for alleged breach of contract, having failed to deliver three of the five albums expected of them during their time with the label. Althought the band claims it was within its legal rights to leave its contract with Virgin, the band were still almost a million and half dollars in debt.

Gone are the days of major labels offering an unlimited unrecoupable cash supply to haughty pop stars and their disaffected, mascara-streaked cohort. 30STM should have realized that any of Virgin's money that they spent on insanely over-the-top videos , angsty outfits, and trying to make Jared Leto seem a bit nicer, was money coming out of the band's own pocket.

So, all these years later, when the label comes around looking to recoup its 'investment', what is there for Leto & co. to whine about? Well, lots, apparently.

30 Seconds To Mars frontman Jared Leto has responded to Virgin Records' $30 million lawsuit for alleged breach of contract and damages, describing the legal action as "insane" but expressing his hope for "a resolution to this in as civil and kind a way as possible."

Virgin is suing the band for alleged breach of contract and damages "in excess of $30,000,000", according to paperwork filed Friday (Aug. 15) in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Virgin accuses Jared and Shannon Leto of not delivering three of the five albums under the band's contract, which it entered into in 1999 with Immortal Records. Virgin took over the contract in 2004, according to the suit, which adds that the Letos "repudiated" the 1999 contract "and claimed that they were excused from such performance from and after July 4, 2008, pursuant to California Labor Code Sec. 2855(a)."

30STM were still $1.4 million in debt to Virgin, prior to leaving the label:

Leto makes various claims in his posting, stating that the band were unhappy that they had sold two million albums yet were "still $1.4 million in debt" and that the "next record we make will be used to pay off that old supposed debt."

However, it is understood that EMI will cite its funding of 30 Seconds To Mars’ tours and videos, directed by Leto, as evidence of a major financial contribution to the band's career.

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World_Groove

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:22 on August 18th, 2008

Killer Headline. Sucked me right in to the story.

PEP

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 10:36 on August 18th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff. Your crafty headline suckered me: I thought "Is Virgin Atlantic suing a sci fi movie? Is some space start-up company suing someone?" ;}

daevon29

at 11:44 on August 18th, 2008

Astoria Theatre concert, april 2007

daevon29 has contributed a photo to this story.

ohkatielynne

at 13:40 on August 18th, 2008

Credit: Katie Adams

ohkatielynne has contributed a photo to this story.

Emelineuh

at 22:50 on August 18th, 2008

×●× girl.F15 ×●×

at 12:44 on August 19th, 2008

×●× girl.F15 ×●× has contributed a photo to this story.

carlo cravero

at 13:37 on August 19th, 2008

30 seconds to mars @ alcatraz, 12/02/08, milano (italy)
jared leto

carlo cravero has contributed a photo to this story.

yXeLLe

at 00:19 on August 20th, 2008

February 2008 - Zenith (Paris)

yXeLLe has contributed a photo to this story.

CarlosFerreira

at 11:04 on August 21st, 2008

30 Seconds to Mars @ Coliseu de Lisboa [15.02.08]
Photo by: Carlos Ferreira [www.myspace.com/carlosferreira]

CarlosFerreira has contributed a photo to this story.

dude it s sandra

at 13:47 on August 24th, 2008

30 Seconds To Mars, Coliseu de Lisboa, 15-02-08 www.flickr.com/photos/sssandra

dude it s sandra has contributed a photo to this story.

azzu83

at 08:29 on August 31st, 2008

30 Seconds to Mars, Alcatraz, Milan, 14/6/2007

azzu83 has contributed a photo to this story.

_Smyle

at 09:06 on August 31st, 2008

Hm, you're being very unbiased, aren't you?

What's a discography for then if they're not gonna pay the videoclips? With Internet, you almost don't need a records company to sell your music anymore.

30STM hasn't been paid ANYTHING AT ALL from what they sold, can you imagine to sell lots of millions of an album and not to get anything back? Come on, the fans of 30STM will keep buying the CD no matter if they're with Emi or not, actually, if we all knew all money goes to the band, be sure many people would buy more than just one CD.

Besides that, there's a law in California that says that any contract will be valid after 7 years, 30STM has been 9 years with EMI. So, yeah.

Anyways, we'll see what happens.