Never thought I’d have reason to say this, but I’m siding with Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit on this one!
“Three decades after it rose to prominence, the band and its founder, Fred Durst, alleges that Universal Music Group (UMG) owes more than $200m after fraudulently concealing royalties from the band.”
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/13/limp-bizkit-universal-music-group-lawsuit?CMP=aus_bsky
#music #metal #rock #capitalism #FredDurst #LimpBizkit @music
@ajsadauskas @music Imagine it’s 1987. Through the graces of one’s connected attorney (getting 10? 15? percent) one has a label deal. A suit comes by and says track 8 on the new album sounds good, let’s hire a hotshot production company/director and budget 300k for the video. It gets modest rotation on MTV and 100k more albums sell. $3 per unit profit, $1 per unit royalty. Label is +300k, Band is down 200k. Video costs are recoupable and is collected before the band gets a check.
@pomCountyIrregs @music Great explanation ☺️
And from the sounds of it, UMG has now just allegedly turned around and said: 'Whoopsies! Software bug! Trevor from IT forgot to install that last floppy disk!
‘Sorry guys, we hadn’t been tallying your YouTube/Spotify/whatever streams these past 20-odd years! Genuine mistake!’
@ajsadauskas @music
One wonders at a software bug that affects one band owed nine figures from decades ago.
@pomCountyIrregs @music “Accidentally”.
Just out of curiousity, has PCI ever been signed to a record label?
Do you see much in the way of royalties from the likes of Spotify or YouTube?
And do artists get much of a cut through Bandcamp?
@ajsadauskas @music No, no, no, not even close.
But I started in the 80s and had a close friend who did well as agent and then manager, so I learned a thing or two from a distance.
He passed away in 2019, so my limited access to inside dope is even more so.
I also read, when I was younger, biographies and memoirs from artists and suits, so that gave me a glimpse.
@ajsadauskas @music
I think Bandcamp and Apple are fair for cuts of sales.
Spotify (ptui) won’t pay us–too few streams.
We’re less than obscure. We sell under 10 units, mostly from Bandcamp, and we get about three streams per day over our library. We’d need 3 per day per track for us to earn something under $3 from Spotify (ptui).
In our best year, about $10 from streamers.