Have Yourself a Vampire Weekend!

August 19, 2011 by Rick Sanders | Category: Blawg, Blog | Tags: copyright, free speech, indemnification, Kennis, music, right of publicity, Vampire Weekend

Publicity Rights, Indemnification and the Coolest Album Cover in Recent Memory

In this post-album world, where we usually buy our music song by song, the album cover is something of a lost art.  In 2009, Vampire Weekend infused some life into that art by building an entire semi-viral marketing campaign around a terrific image that turned out to be the cover art for their next album, Contra.  That album cover was the subject of an interesting lawsuit filed last year in Los Angeles, which settled earlier this week.

Contra’s album cover is one of the best in recent memory.  If you’re a fan of Vampire Weekend, you know what I’m talking about.*  If you don’t, you can get a good look at it here at Rolling Stone’s site.  It’s hard to put one’s finger on why it’s so good.  It looks like a candid poloroid (and, perhaps, it is).  The subject is pretty but gawky.  Her eyes are wide, less with surprise than with a kind of intensity, her mouth slightly open as if she were about to say something.  The lighting implies that it was taken, with a flash, in a darkened room.  It’s … Read More»