> 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 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.710 / Virus Database: 466 - Release Date: 6/23/04