Bay City Rollers sue Arista
p2pnet.net news:- Scotland’s the Bay City Rollers, famous in the 70s, are suing Arista Records, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony BMG, saying the company has been keeping back payments from album sales, merchandise, commercials, film rights and ringtones for the last 25 years.
Arista also features prominently in many of the lawsuits brought by Big 4 music cartel members Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG against their own customers as part if their sue ‘em all marketing campaign.
The Bay City Rollers’ legal action, filed in the US District Court in New York, doesn’t say how much the group wants from Arista, says the BBC, going on:
“In the documents, the group said they had sold at least 70 million albums around the world but received only a single royalty payment of about $254,000 (ã129,000) in more than 25 years. The documents said Arista had promised to pay royalties over the years but claimed not to know who to pay.”
SoundExchange is an ex-RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) collection agency which last year was involved in a scandal because it hadn’t paid some 9,000 professional and amateur artists, claiming it couldn’t find them.
The BBC doesn’t say if the organization was/is detailed to look after the Rollers.
Bassist Alan Longmuir and his younger brother, Derek, a drummer, founded the group in Edinburgh in 1967, says The Independent, going on:
“They rose to fame under the management of Tam Paton, himself a former big band leader, and allegedly chose their name by throwing a dart at a map of the United States.
“The Bay City Rollers released eight original albums and numerous greatest hits and compilations, including five straight gold records and six singles which made the US Top 40.”
Also See:
BBC – Bay City Rollers sue record label, March 21, 2007
SoundExchange – Big Music Owes You Money !!!, September 29, 2006
The Independent – Bay City Rollers sue record label over royalties, March 21, 2007
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March 21st, 2007 at 11:56 am
The documents said Arista had promised to pay royalties over the years but claimed not to know who to pay.”
Maybe the same people they made the initial $254,000 payment to? You know, the people listed as the plaintiffs who are suing them for non payment? Funny how these guys always claim they can get a solid ID off of an IP addy, but they have such a hard time finding famous people when it comes time to hand out money.
Good Ol’ Sound Exchange, going from screwing musicians out of their money to killing off internet radio.
March 21st, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I hope BCR beats the pants off of Arista and that other artists are inspired by it. Just think what could happen if all the artists that ‘belong’ to the RIAA left and sued the RIAA….just THINK of the po$$ibilities…………………
March 21st, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Hope they also got compounded interest.
So they have not be paying they royites as there meant to under there contract. As such they are breach of contract so could sue them for breach copyright.
25 years is darn long time for them not to pay up.
March 21st, 2007 at 7:25 pm
From an astroturfer in this thread …
http://p2pnet.net/index.php?page=comment&story=11667&comment=135386
” As someone who plays music if an artist I like is with a major label I respect them enough to pay the people they have CHOSEN to represent/distrubute/promote their music. maybe they don’t get as much as they should from those people but I prfer to get their music through the people they choose to help them get it to me. ”
Looks like they help themselves more than you or the
artists. Stand up and salute them.
” I buy Napster To Go cards or use Yahoo Music Unlimited or imesh To Go because it’s the RIGHT thing to do. I feel better about the music I listen to and I enjoy it. ”
We all agree that paying the artists is the right thing to do …
Why don’t THEY do it ?? it IS the right thing to do.
” If a Canadian law someday say’s 100% without a doubt P2P downloading is 100% legal ”
P2P is legal.
Cheating artists out of their rightful royalties isn’t.
Clean hands anyone ?