Wilco: One for the Price of Two
In 2001, despite alt-country band Wilco's modest success, their previous album, Summerteeth, hadn't sold as many copies as their label Reprise Records had hoped. When front man Jeff Tweedy sent Reprise the band's latest effort, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the absence of a radio hit made the cash-strapped label balk. Reprise rejected the album, reportedly offering the band full royalty rights on Foxtrot just to get them off the label. Wilco turned around and sold its unwanted album to Nonesuch — which just happens to be owned by the Time Warner, the same parent company as Reprise (and TIME). As Rolling Stone explained it in a 2002 article, "Essentially, the mother firm paid for the album twice."
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot made it to No. 13 on the Billboard Top 200 and introduced Wilco to a much wider audience. Subsequent discs broke the Billboard Top 10 and earned the band two Grammy awards. How do you like them apples, Reprise?