p2pnet - rss feed: Musicians sue Universal Music
p2pnet news | Music:- Sony Music Entertainment, Sony ATV Music Publishing, Warner Music Group, UMG Recordings, Universal Music, EMI Music Publishing, BMG Songs, Careers-BMG Music Publishing, BMG Music and the Harry Fox Agency must, “ensure that the artists and their descendants will receive the compensation to which they are entitled,” said then New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer, ordering the labels to return $50 million to musicians they had under contract.
That’s from a 2004 p2pnet story.
The same year, “While Organized Music raves about the thieving, cheating scum who share music online, depriving musicians of their rightful dues, it seems one of its members tried hard to screw elderly Sam Moore of ‘Soul Man’ and ‘Hold On! I’m Comin’ fame out of his pension, said another post, going on:
“At the beginning of the ’90s, after selling millions of records for Warner Bros’ Atlantic Records, Moore thought about packing the Music Biz in,” but, “instead of finding a comfortable nest egg, he found, barely a goose egg, writes Edna Gundersen in USA TODAY“.
That was years ago and surely in 2008, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG will have straightened out their royalty payments. Right?
Nope. They’re still calling their own customers “thieves” and “criminals” as they try to sue them into buying ‘product’ and while they do that, “More than a dozen recording artists, including the estates of jazz legends Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan and Benny Goodman, have launched a lawsuit against Universal Music Group, accusing the music giant of withholding royalties,” says the CBC, going on:
“The suit alleges that the company ‘pervasively and systematically breached’ agreements with the musicians by using false accounting to conceal their true earnings dating back to at least 1998.”
Now the musicians say they’re owed at least $6.07 million, “plus unspecified punitive damages and legal fees,” says the story, adding:
“Les Brown, Dick Hyman, Patti Page and Jerry Murad are among the other musicians included in the lawsuit.”
The CBC quotes Reuters as saying France’s Vivendi, which owns Universal, says claims are baseless, “and we are confident that we will prevail in court”.
Also See:
p2pnet - Return $50M, record labels told, May 4, 2004
another post - Screwed by Big Music, May 23, 2004
USA TODAY - Bye, bye, a piece of the pie, May 16, 2004
CBC - Musicians sue Universal over royalties, February 15, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe
to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.phpNet access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Yes. It is time to do it before Universal go out of business.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:43 am
THE PROBLEM: NO ONE AUDITS THE COOKED BOOKS
There is an underlying fact that prevents the proper accounting for bothe artists and songwriters: There is no rganization that audits the books of record companies and the so called but ficticious music publishers , watching out for the interests of artists and songwriters. Shamefully for legislators, no law requires such an auditing organization to exist.
To a degree this is the fault of the artists and songwriters themselves. The very successful stars are happy with their fat checks and do not want to shake things to help their less (moneywise) succesful peers. And the less succesful artists and songwriters are too scared to claim anything and continue to give away what they produce in exchange for nothing.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:50 am
“To a degree this is the fault of the artists and songwriters themselves”
Rafael I think you are right.
I think being walked all over - or at least not rocking the boat - (”too scared to claim anything”) is a personality trait that goes hand-in-hand with the skill sets most artists have, generally speaking.
Artists - is that true?
February 25th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Well these PERFORMER’S want too think of the PROCESSES involved in MARKETING & MANUFACTURING what MIGHT or MIGHT NOT BE their ENSEMBLE’S!
Well i know for a GUARANTEED FACT that there are not many THESPIANS whom PRESENT APPLICATION’S & PROFIT by them which are not doing it ILLEGALLY, because I OWN the MUSIC & MOVIE INDUSTRY & the PATENT’S which governs over them & all these THESPIANS have never got RELEASE from me!
Yes i made an AGREEMENT with NEGRO too OPERATE MOTOWN year’s gone bye, & me owning MOTOWN would make it LEGAL for them too PRODUCE & PROFIT! I OWN many thing’s but some CHARACTER’S think they can RIP ME OFF! SADLY they are WRONG!
Yours THE BABY BLUE EYES has SINATRA once told you!