Old School Accounting Plagues Music 2.0
BANDS & MANAGERS ASK "WHERE’S THE MONEY?"
We may be in the middle of the new age of Music Business 2.0, but its still the Dark Ages when it comes to record label accounting.
Stories have been bubbling for months about labels putting some acts into the digital domain without the proper contracts and paying out a smaller percentage of digital profits than seems logical. (How do you jusitfy taking a packaging deduction on a download?) More recently managers and acts have been asking where their check is from the settlement of illegal download cases with Napster and others?
Now comes word that artists thus far haven’t seen any of the money from the licensing deals the majors signed with YouTube. According to the site, they are sharing ad revenue with the record labels. Yet, "I don’t know any artist who has gotten a royalty statement (from their label that includes YouTube money)," music attorney Chris Castle told cNet. There are also real concerns that YouTube’s filtering system does not track all performances (like those of a fan covering a song) accurately.
Seperately, I know that many indie labels have no deal with YouTube at all and that efforts by some indie trade organizations to cut group deals have stalled. Many labels and acts are afraid to pull their content because of the promotional value that YouTube provides.
Ad supported music and videos only works if a fair share of the the revenue actually trickles down to the artist.
Why would an artist/attorney be concerned with royalties due from their label for a video of a fan covering their song on Youtube?
Royalties may be due from their publisher/PRO, but a label isn’t entitled to revenue from a cover (as they don’t own the master recording of that cover).
So, I’ve discovered the most amazing website for a new digital label called Artists For Artists Music. If you go to http://www.afamusic.com, you can register for a page and promote your music for free. It’s basically where digital music meets social networking.
The best part is, at least for me, that there are TONS of bands that register everyday. It’s like a never-ending supply of new music for me to discover.
Do yourselves a favor and check it out. It’s so worth it.
just checked afamusic, why would any artist on earth want to accept this from afamusic’s t&c:
“By submitting sound recordings or musical compositions or other audio and/or audio-visual content to us, you grant us, our affiliates, and our business partners a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive license to:
* publicly perform, publicly display, broadcast, encode, edit, alter, modify, reproduce, transmit, manufacture, distribute and synchronize with visual images your material, in whole or in part, alone or in compilation with content provided by third parties, through any medium now known or hereafter devised for the purpose of demonstrating, promoting or distributing your material, to users seeking to download or otherwise acquire it and/or (ii) storing the work in a remote database accessible by users;
* Make your material accessible as audio and/or video streams;
* Use any trademarks, service marks or trade names incorporated into your material and use the likeness of any individual whose performance or image is contained in your material.”
At least from youtube you might get a share of revenue one day…
@A
Almost every big artist’s YouTube channel gets a check from Google each month for their cut of the ad’s served against the videos that they upload. Unfortunately, those checks go straight to the label and then are subject to their notoriously mysterious accounting. That’s what they’re referring to.