Sony on Michael Jackson’s ‘Breaking News’ Controversy: It’s Good Publicity

The other day, Sony Music began streaming for free, for only a week, a new song from Michael Jackson, lifted off the upcoming “Michael” album. As controversy on whether the vocals are really Michael’s continues to rage, Sony is happy about the free publicity.

A label insider spoke to the UK Michael Jackson Official Fanclub, revealing, under the cover of anonymity, that, indeed, part of what is heard on the song is not Michael’s voice. But he’s there, somewhere.

As we also noted the other day, though reps remain mum on the song and, most importantly, on whether Sony used an MJ impersonator to record the track, fans are convinced that that’s not the King of Pop on it.

The source confirms that – but Michael’s voice is still heard, even if only in the background. As it turns out, Sony worked from an older demo of Michael’s, superimposing a voice that sounds like him and lots of studio trickery.

“The fact is, at this point no one knows what tracks are what,” the insider confides. He’s talking about the entire upcoming album, of which Sony has said it was comprised from the completed tracks (about 300) Michael left behind.

“The tracks that are listed for the upcoming album everyone besides those closely working on the project, are confused as to what is what. Some may have been recorded in 2007 or 2008 but damn it’s a mess,” the insider says.

When the source (referenced as Charlie to protect his identity) meets with a high-level Sony exec (whose name is not revealed either), he’s shocked to hear him laugh 3 lines into the just-released “Breaking News” song.

“Wow, really?” Charlie asks. He then gets confirmation of what critics and fans have been suspecting all along: most of the vocals are not Michael’s and Sony is not addressing this in any way because all publicity is good publicity.

“Of course hardly any of this is Michael, but the good news is from I have heard so far, it shouldn’t get any worse than this,” the Sony exec explains.

“The bridge & background vocals are him in parts but the Cascio guys chose to do it this way. It’s good publicity right now,” the same Sony rep explains.

Apparently, “Breaking News” was initially a demo, one that Michael probably refused to record, which would explain why he never recorded the lead vocals, the post on the fansite reads. Sony is now trying to sell fakes, as it were, it further notes.