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Verizon's Marley ringtone deal stirs things up in family

It looked like a public relations coup when, on Tuesday, Verizon Wireless announced that it had signed an exclusive deal with the Universal Music Group to sell its customers ringtones from the catalog of Bob Marley, the famed reggae singer who died in 1981.

But two days later his survivors decided to -- as Marley famously sang -- "stir it up," announcing that they would file a lawsuit to block the deal.

Chris Blackwell, a longtime spokesman for the Marley family, said by telephone from Britain that he was originally approached by Verizon Wireless a few months ago and met with representatives of the company twice.

While Verizon proposed the deal as a matter of simply licensing the music, Blackwell said, the family held that if the cellular company was going to provide the ring tones exclusively and use Marley's image to its marketing benefit, it amounted to an endorsement.

"It was not something we were willing to consider unless they were willing to view it as an endorsement," said Blackwell, adding that along with securing a fee for the family, an endorsement contract would allow the estate to set parameters on how Marley's image and name could be used. (The phone company is already using an image of Marley to promote itself on its Web site.)

But rather than make an endorsement offer, Verizon went to Universal, a subsidiary of Vivendi, and sewed up a deal without the family's blessing.

In a statement, Universal called the claims by the Marley estate "meritless" and said, "We are offering Bob Marley ring tones through Verizon in accordance with the terms of a long-standing contract between Bob Marley and UMG."

The Marley estate will earn royalties from the ring tones Verizon sells whether or not the family files suit.

Whether the Marley estate would have agreed to an endorsement deal is an open question. The family rejects about 40 percent of endorsement requests; it has said "yes" to the Jamaican Tourism Board but generally says "no" to fast-food purveyors and financial institutions, Blackwell said.

Blackwell, 70, is the founder of Island Records and is credited with exposing Marley, who died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 36, to an international audience. He sold Island Records to Polygram Records, which was eventually bought by Seagram and merged into Universal.

"I cannot accept the way Universal is treating the estate," Blackwell said. "We don't want this deal done. We want to sustain Bob Marley's reputation, and they've done this without any permission from us, and we feel they're absolutely not entitled to do so."
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