Chuck D of Public Enemy fame is the latest artist to sue his label alleging they are cheating him out of royalties from music downloads.
The issue, as with other artists who have sued, is whether downloads, including those from services like iTunes or Amazon's MP3 Shop as well as ringtones, should be counted as sales or licenses.
It's an issue which could cost the labels a lot of money ... [ read the full article ]
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It's not that dear to produce yourself these days people just think it's really hard as you don't have any major outlets to get your stuff get heard on now.
I look at this way, if labels make $ off downloads and it don't cost them jack to put up; then yes a portion should be given to artists no questions ask. Otherwise all songs on the net should be free with nobody profiting.
Not to be one for "I told you so", but indeed... I have been telling you folks this for months that this is how these bastards do business.
It is all the more reason why I support the efforts of Radiohead. Self support when you can. Your fans will indeed pay their way. All you have to do is get one (1) honest person to show you how it's done. Take away the mystery & you'll be just fine.
Granted, not everyone can be a brain surgeon, but there for the longest time folks didn't think they could put gas in their own car either.
But lest we forget, that dollar figure you see for the artist/producer? That's still what he/she figures they deserve/get. There is still the agent's take (min. of 15%) & other BS charges that will come off the top of that figure (if that even gets awarded), so let's not start cheering quite yet.
Originally posted by LordRuss: Not to be one for "I told you so", but indeed... I have been telling you folks this for months that this is how these bastards do business.
It is all the more reason why I support the efforts of Radiohead. Self support when you can. Your fans will indeed pay their way. All you have to do is get one (1) honest person to show you how it's done. Take away the mystery & you'll be just fine.
Granted, not everyone can be a brain surgeon, but there for the longest time folks didn't think they could put gas in their own car either.
But lest we forget, that dollar figure you see for the artist/producer? That's still what he/she figures they deserve/get. There is still the agent's take (min. of 15%) & other BS charges that will come off the top of that figure (if that even gets awarded), so let's not start cheering quite yet.
Of course when people sue they do get cheated due to the law regardless of who you are due to the 15% thing but I do find it Ironic it was this very thing in I believe in 99 or 98 the RIAA tried to do this very thing to rip off their artists/producers and the artists rebelled.
The RIAA are the real crooks especially if anybody remembers The RIAA went after a Artist who Pirated his own Music a few years back if anybody remembers.
Originally posted by Tristan_2: The RIAA are the real crooks especially if anybody remembers The RIAA went after a Artist who Pirated his own Music a few years back if anybody remembers.
It goes back even further than that with Bruce Springsteen, Andy Warhol, Jack Kirby... probably even further than that given that legislation wasn't even put on the books. Artists have been fighting their commissioners for some kind of credit for their work since Ogg on the cave walls.
It's like I've redundantly said before, "Everybody loves art, till they have to pay for it. Some asshole will always step up to collect the fee for the artist, but he thinks his talent is always 10K times that of the artist's every time."
