Million-Dollar New Age Hits

[October 8th, 2003] People often bitch that all New Age music sounds the same. Two weeks ago, a Portland jury decided a local music company tried to capitalize on that fact. They ordered the outfit to pay nearly $1 million in damages to a Hollywood-based songwriter whose soothing sonics ended up on CDs without her permission.

Suzanne Bell-Doucet records music with titles like "Morning in the Forest," mellow soundscapes that incorporate nature sounds and ambient drones. "The purpose is to relax," the German-born composer says.

Bell-Doucet says that in 1997 she signed a contract with Allegro, a multifaceted Portland company that distributes CDs in just about every music genre. The deal called for the Portland firm to press and distribute Bell-Doucet's music. In '99, Bell-Doucet says, she discovered Allegro was more than living up to its end of the bargain.

The company had taken music she recorded for a CD series called "Sounds of Nature" and incorporated it into a different series, "National Park Adventures," for which she wasn't getting royalties. A few questions and trips to Tower Records later, she found Allegro was flogging other repackaged and retitled versions of her work. "Voice of the Wind" turned into "Zen Sunrise." "Morning in the Forest" had been reincarnated as "Tai Chi Meditation." And Bell-Doucet decided her creative rights had been 'jacked.

"The way they would change the titles and the artwork, these CDs could just be anything," Bell-Doucet says. "When you sign that kind of contract, you don't sign away your basic rights."

In trying to sort out what happened, she contacted the factory that printed the CDs. Allegro responded by suing her for $1 million, alleging she'd interfered with the company's business.

Bell-Doucet slapped back with her own suit. "I'm not the kind of person who runs immediately to sue," she says. "I don't think I've ever been involved in a lawsuit before."

The apparent sleight-of-hand was no small affair. According to Doucet's lawyer, Mike Cohen of the Portland firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, evidence suggests Allegro moved at least 890,000 discs incorporating Bell-Doucet's music, without paying her royalties.

Allegro, which declined to comment on the verdict, retained high-octane L.A. entertainment lawyer Gerald Margolis in the case. Margolis has represented Slayer, Robin Williams, Willie Nelson, Mariah Carey and Mick Jagger, but couldn't make the whip come down for his Portland client.

On Sept. 22, a jury in Portland's federal district court found in Bell-Doucet's favor, whacking Allegro with $965,000 in damages. About one-third of that toll represents unpaid royalties. Most of it (over a half-million cold ones, in fact) redresses "damage to reputation."

Although Allegro is weighing an appeal to the verdict, Bell-Doucet is relieved that her tranquility may soon return.