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Post by EmRR on Jun 20, 2022 19:35:12 GMT -6
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Post by deaconblues on Jun 23, 2022 9:50:07 GMT -6
Not surprised Domino settled. Had this been an actual judgment, every artist on their label would be coming after them using the precedent-- which would most likely be an extinction level event for them (and other mid-to-large indies). I imagine that other artists on their label probably aren't as capable of getting involved in a legal battle that takes this long.
Domino's statement: "Neither the Courts, nor the settlement terms, have made any determination as to how streaming should be categorised or streaming income split." Or to translate: "We won because our less fortunate artists can't come after us for financial abuse of their old contracts."
Domino should definitely be shamed for both taking his streams offline during the dispute and also making the excuse that they were "advised" to do so. Take ownership in your sh*t-headed legal moves! It's obvious they were trying to starve his ability to fight back, and he's truly lucky that this took place in the court that it did with the capped costs.
Further statement from Domino: "The case now having been settled, we are glad to be able to dedicate our full attention to resourcing and supporting our artists and we wish Kieran continued success in his career." Notice how they don't consider Kieran one of "their" artists despite the fact that they have lifetime control over three of his releases and imply they are going their separate ways. They rejected his attempts at taking his catalogue back and he will be dealing with them financially for THE REST OF HIS LIFE! Imagine having to trust the bookkeeping of an organization who has treated you the way they have. Yikes.
I'm happy for Kieran though, and look forward to him making more cool music. (That Madlib collab last year was fun!) He really took one for the team in exposing the way all of this stuff works; buy some of his releases on Text as a thank you.
As a friendly reminder to younger artists:
• Be careful who your representation is; be careful what you sign away and for how long.
• NEVER sign away anything for life even if it means you miss out on short term money. Nothing is as valuable as freedom to do what you want.
• Try to find out the nature of your manager's or lawyer's relationship with the labels they are presenting your work to. "Conflict-of-interest" is not in their vocabulary, but "quid pro quo" is.
• The short term injections of "advance" cash never go as far as you think they will, even if it's the biggest paycheck you've ever received. No one tells you about what operating expenses are actually going to look like once you're out on the road trying to pay that debt back. I've even seen labels charge their artists full retail price for their own records. Yikes again.\\
Good luck out there.
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Post by jacobamerritt on Jun 23, 2022 16:36:16 GMT -6
Not surprised Domino settled. Had this been an actual judgment, every artist on their label would be coming after them using the precedent-- which would most likely be an extinction level event for them (and other mid-to-large indies). I imagine that other artists on their label probably aren't as capable of getting involved in a legal battle that takes this long. Domino's statement: "Neither the Courts, nor the settlement terms, have made any determination as to how streaming should be categorised or streaming income split." Or to translate: "We won because our less fortunate artists can't come after us for financial abuse of their old contracts." Domino should definitely be shamed for both taking his streams offline during the dispute and also making the excuse that they were "advised" to do so. Take ownership in your sh*t-headed legal moves! It's obvious they were trying to starve his ability to fight back, and he's truly lucky that this took place in the court that it did with the capped costs. Further statement from Domino: "The case now having been settled, we are glad to be able to dedicate our full attention to resourcing and supporting our artists and we wish Kieran continued success in his career." Notice how they don't consider Kieran one of "their" artists despite the fact that they have lifetime control over three of his releases and imply they are going their separate ways. They rejected his attempts at taking his catalogue back and he will be dealing with them financially for THE REST OF HIS LIFE! Imagine having to trust the bookkeeping of an organization who has treated you the way they have. Yikes. I'm happy for Kieran though, and look forward to him making more cool music. (That Madlib collab last year was fun!) He really took one for the team in exposing the way all of this stuff works; buy some of his releases on Text as a thank you. As a friendly reminder to younger artists: • Be careful who your representation is; be careful what you sign away and for how long. • NEVER sign away anything for life even if it means you miss out on short term money. Nothing is as valuable as freedom to do what you want. • Try to find out the nature of your manager's or lawyer's relationship with the labels they are presenting your work to. "Conflict-of-interest" is not in their vocabulary, but "quid pro quo" is. • The short term injections of "advance" cash never go as far as you think they will, even if it's the biggest paycheck you've ever received. No one tells you about what operating expenses are actually going to look like once you're out on the road trying to pay that debt back. I've even seen labels charge their artists full retail price for their own records. Yikes again.\\ Good luck out there. To your last line - My band was on an imprint of WB. Definitely made us pay full price for our records, none of which went towards our recoup if I recall correctly. Our 'advance' on the record for recording costs and PR was about 20k... Sold a decent amount, got a ton of syncs, including one that was 15k right in the labels pocket. Have never received a royalty check from them to this day (We do get our ASCAP, and publishing checks for syncs and so forth thank goodness). Before that, our label was an early adapter of iTunes, and had a direct deal. Amazing royalty rate. Released at least 2 albums with them... Literally never have seen a penny over 15+ years. Finally got the masters back a couple years ago. I'll stop now before this becomes a really long rant. |
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Post by the other mark williams on Jun 27, 2022 22:34:17 GMT -6
Not surprised Domino settled. Had this been an actual judgment, every artist on their label would be coming after them using the precedent-- which would most likely be an extinction level event for them (and other mid-to-large indies). I imagine that other artists on their label probably aren't as capable of getting involved in a legal battle that takes this long. Domino's statement: "Neither the Courts, nor the settlement terms, have made any determination as to how streaming should be categorised or streaming income split." Or to translate: "We won because our less fortunate artists can't come after us for financial abuse of their old contracts." Domino should definitely be shamed for both taking his streams offline during the dispute and also making the excuse that they were "advised" to do so. Take ownership in your sh*t-headed legal moves! It's obvious they were trying to starve his ability to fight back, and he's truly lucky that this took place in the court that it did with the capped costs. Further statement from Domino: "The case now having been settled, we are glad to be able to dedicate our full attention to resourcing and supporting our artists and we wish Kieran continued success in his career." Notice how they don't consider Kieran one of "their" artists despite the fact that they have lifetime control over three of his releases and imply they are going their separate ways. They rejected his attempts at taking his catalogue back and he will be dealing with them financially for THE REST OF HIS LIFE! Imagine having to trust the bookkeeping of an organization who has treated you the way they have. Yikes. I'm happy for Kieran though, and look forward to him making more cool music. (That Madlib collab last year was fun!) He really took one for the team in exposing the way all of this stuff works; buy some of his releases on Text as a thank you. As a friendly reminder to younger artists: • Be careful who your representation is; be careful what you sign away and for how long. • NEVER sign away anything for life even if it means you miss out on short term money. Nothing is as valuable as freedom to do what you want. • Try to find out the nature of your manager's or lawyer's relationship with the labels they are presenting your work to. "Conflict-of-interest" is not in their vocabulary, but "quid pro quo" is. • The short term injections of "advance" cash never go as far as you think they will, even if it's the biggest paycheck you've ever received. No one tells you about what operating expenses are actually going to look like once you're out on the road trying to pay that debt back. I've even seen labels charge their artists full retail price for their own records. Yikes again.\\ Good luck out there. To your last line - My band was on an imprint of WB. Definitely made us pay full price for our records, none of which went towards our recoup if I recall correctly. Our 'advance' on the record for recording costs and PR was about 20k... Sold a decent amount, got a ton of syncs, including one that was 15k right in the labels pocket. Have never received a royalty check from them to this day (We do get our ASCAP, and publishing checks for syncs and so forth thank goodness). Before that, our label was an early adapter of iTunes, and had a direct deal. Amazing royalty rate. Released at least 2 albums with them... Literally never have seen a penny over 15+ years. Finally got the masters back a couple years ago. I'll stop now before this becomes a really long rant. I want to hear more. |
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Post by keymod on Jun 28, 2022 4:58:02 GMT -6
To your last line - My band was on an imprint of WB. Definitely made us pay full price for our records, none of which went towards our recoup if I recall correctly. Our 'advance' on the record for recording costs and PR was about 20k... Sold a decent amount, got a ton of syncs, including one that was 15k right in the labels pocket. Have never received a royalty check from them to this day (We do get our ASCAP, and publishing checks for syncs and so forth thank goodness). Before that, our label was an early adapter of iTunes, and had a direct deal. Amazing royalty rate. Released at least 2 albums with them... Literally never have seen a penny over 15+ years. Finally got the masters back a couple years ago. I'll stop now before this becomes a really long rant. I want to hear more. Me too. |
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Post by jacobamerritt on Jun 28, 2022 13:37:29 GMT -6
I don't have the emotional energy to give you more, I'm sorry. Ha!  Needless to say the label that signed us took a fat check from Warner Bros to become a subsidiary/imprint, but it was a short sighted decision. Small fish in a giant pond. As far as the previous label we were on- lesson learned the hard way. Just because someone is a nice person and an 'indie' doesn't mean you shouldnt have a firm contract in writing reviewed by a decent attorney. Obviously. Not as obvious to naive young bands unfortunately. |
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Post by drbill on Jul 2, 2022 17:08:40 GMT -6
I get somewhere between 1-2 Million audio streams per quarter. I own the writers, the publishers AND the recordings. Due to a non-exclusive publishing deal that I made with a couple of publishers, a hundred or so pieces of music that were NEVER intended for public consumption - they were written for film, TV, etc. - have ended up on "albums" in Spotify, iTunes, etc.. Now...theoretically, although they have the right to re-title the composition and claim publishing for THAT re-title, they DO NOT own the master recordings, so they technically cannot operate as "a record company" with these recordings. Somehow, that seems to have escaped them.... Some of these recordings are even on albums with MY NAME and LIKENESS. I never officially authorized ANY of them. Most are on "various artist" compilation albums. They have all been put up "behind my back" and have taken on a life of their own without my knowledge, promotion or oversight. Honestly, I'm semi-embarrassed for some of the mixes, cause the music went from brief, to idea, to production, to final mastered mix in 4-6 hours -- and they are 20 years old. So...here's the financial take on these tunes. 1-2M streams a quarter. According to Spotify, that should net around $4,000 per quarter, per Million streams for "the record company". So averaged out, they are making $6k or so per quarter off my music. I have never seen a penny from "the record companies". They are hidden behind multiple curtains of obscurity. You cannot even find them with an internet search. They are literally LLC's set up to milk money off of unsuspecting artists music. I get my BMI writers for said streams, and it comes up to somewhere between $80-100 per quarter for those performances. Criminal. Absolutely horrific that anyone would do that to an artist. It took me quite awhile to figure all this out and wrap my mind around it. The record companies and streaming companies are getting the huge percentages, and the publishers, writers and artists are taking one crumb that fell off the pie, and splitting that crumb between themselves. There IS HUGE money being made. By the masters holders (record companies). But,,,, All is not lost. I've seen what they have done to me - and others - and I'm going to attempt to beat them at their own game.  It's a very long play. I'm almost 2 years in with another 3-5 to go.... Stay tuned..... |
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Post by drbill on Jul 2, 2022 19:51:27 GMT -6
PS -
O W N E R S H I P
is key to ever making money and/or headway in this business. Give it away and you had better have a good reason, or be content to have other businesses make their money off your back. I'm all for signing over rights and copyrights if it progresses me or makes me money in a fashion that I can't achieve on my own. But these days, it takes a pretty large, juicy carrot to even get my attention.
I have learned that whoever owns the recordings pretty much calls all the shots. And reaps the lion share of the rewards.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2022 19:52:43 GMT -6
preach drbill... have experienced similar, also people coming out of the woodwork trying to 'license', rights for streaming
or buying publishing and getting very rude when i say - not interested.. had one message with JUST SIGN IT after saying no a couple of times.. delete..
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Post by drbill on Jul 3, 2022 21:31:18 GMT -6
preach drbill... have experienced similar, also people coming out of the woodwork trying to 'license', rights for streaming or buying publishing and getting very rude when i say - not interested.. had one message with JUST SIGN IT after saying no a couple of times.. delete.. Disgraceful. Sorry to hear that. Most legit publishers are willing to at least hear your concerns, explain their position, and potentially tweak a contract to make it viable for you. The ones who won't give you the time of day....yup.....delete. Erase from email. Block phone number. |
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Post by drbill on Jul 3, 2022 21:33:46 GMT -6
PS -
we have no real union....
we have no legit organizing body....
we have no dedicated politicians on our side....
we have no radicalized and/or energized PRO's willing to put us writers/publishers/artists first....
We MUST stick together and support each other as best we can.
Best of luck to all of us. We will need it....
If my long term ideas/revenge-plans work out, I will share with the community.
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Needless to say the label that signed us took a fat check from Warner Bros to become a subsidiary/imprint, but it was a short sighted decision. Small fish in a giant pond. 
