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| From | "bryan" <munki100@pacbell.net> |
| Subject | EMI ripping off Bill Nelson of Be-Bop-Deluxe |
| Date | Sat, 26 Jun 2004 16:31:17 -0700 |
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> Just stumbled onto this, cant remember if this has been mentioned here
> before - a sad tale of EMI ripping off Bill Nelson of Be-Bop-Deluxe
Sorry for the long post...
Well, there's certainly quite a few things to be said about
this "Story" about "How [Bill Nelson]'s Record Label
Ripped Him Off" -- I don't think this story hit me the same
way it hit you, Billy.
First of all, he's talking about artist royalties, and indeed,
those artist advances have to be recouped before royalty
payments start showing up in the black on the artist's side.
Let's assume, true or not, that he was being paid mechanical
royalties for his publishing -- for the songs he's written that
appeared on those albums which EMI-Harvest sold. If in
fact he was, he would have seen accounting statements
from his publisher(s) regarding how many records were
shipped, at least.
If he was on top of his publishing accounting, or at least his
manager was, he would have had some ammunition as far
as going to the record company and asking them to give
him an accounting of his sales, and he could have compared
those figures against the publisher's accounting of shipping
of CDs, etc.
Record companies, as we all know (some from experience
on either side of the equation), can be very clever about
what they claim as deductions, etc., but there's very little
to be hidden in publishing royalty accounting statements...
perhaps someone else on this list will give more details...?
Bill N. should have certainly received statements from
EMI-Harvest that showed him the progress he was making
toward that debt, with accounting figures for actual sales,
less returns, and with the proper accounting for packaging,
etc.
If he truly didn't even receive statements, and just took
their word for this during a phone call, then he really didn't
deal with this issue properly to begin with. If he had dealt
with it the right way, and asked for statements to be mailed
(as I've seen happen hundreds of times), he would have
seen the names of the individuals who were getting paid
on that particular project/account (or not getting paid, as
the case might be), and this whole matter could have been
cleared up years earlier.
Artist royalties are usually paid bi-yearly, so he should have
received at least two statements, every six months each year...
between 1974 and 1997 (that's the year 'Air Age Anthology'
was released on CD, and I'm not sure if it came out on LP
before then, and AMG didn't provide info, but that's not
really the point is it?) ....uh, that's a pretty long time to go
without receiving royalty accounting statements of any kind...
Certainly Bill Nelson would have known all about sending
out statements since he ran his own label (Cocteau)
beginning in 1980....I wonder, did he pay the additional
artists/producers/etc. who were due artist royalties of one
type or another on *his* recordings? Or, did he pay them on
a "work for hire" basis...?
Yes, certainly his "ex-bandmates" should have piped up and
said something about the royalties they were receiving for
albums they didn't play on, but more often than not musicians
have their management companies take care of this -- and
they don't actually see the statements (that's my experience).
The managers get the checks, usually an assistant or someone
credits the band's account, a new check is cut (less their
percentage, fifteen percent or whatever, or after deductions
or accounting is readjusted for advances they've made...),
and deposited into their accounts -- what I'm saying is, the
band mates may not have even known that the money they
were being paid was for albums they weren't on....that's
probably not the case, but it certainly could have happened
given the sloppy accounting detailed in this "Story."
In any case, what happened here is a shame, but Nelson (in
my opinion) let it slide for YEARS...and he really shouldn't
be complaining about what happened when he really should
have done *something* to fix the problem decades ago....
he let too much time go by to be this angry about his own
mistakes....As he said when this was written, he had at the
time, had a "30 year professional life in music" -- he certainly
should have stayed involved in the accounting of his own
royalties....
Anyway, taking care of these problems years later amounts
to one of those "closing the barn door after the horses have
run off" situations (sorry, couldn't think of another image...).
It might fix the problem in the future, regarding artist royalties,
and he certainly should have done this, but in my opinion, it's
his own fault for neglecting it for years....
Bryan
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