Comments on: Apple # 1 sues EMI

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 05:15:30 +0000

I believe he owns 50% of their back catalog.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 14:09:19 +0000

i thought michael jackson bought the entire beatles’ works some years ago. or did he sell them to pay for court costs?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 12:34:25 +0000

…or:

A) EMI are trying to steal the royalties from The Beatles (Bad)

B) EMI are so stupid they can’t add up what the royalties are supposed to be. (Incompetent)

C) EMI forgot that they exist to serve
i) The Beatles
ii) The Public

(Unsurprising)

At least The Beatles have enough cash to take the record company to court. I wish we could say the same about a certain 17000-odd other people.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 06:42:07 +0000

I wish the survivors of The Beatles the best in recouping the lost income that the labels tend to believe they can keep stealing from the artist. Once again we see the names of the major labels in the news. Why is it none of it is ever good?

The labels are past masters at juggling the books. It was once mentioned also that artists can’t just get an accounting of the books. An audit isn’t for free and most of the time, it is beyond the reach of most artists to pay for an audio. You don’t throw $50,000 at funding an audit everyday with the hopes you will uncover enough to recoup the cost of discovery.

Claims in the past have also lead to duplicate runs in the pressing plants that weren’t recorded so as to be credited to the artists accounts. Whether these are true, I have no clue but the charges were serious enough that the courts thought they had enough merit to have a case. How will hidden these profits that might have been diverted from artists accounts only leaves one in speculation of how many other artists simply can’t afford to have the books looked at and if there is one group you can be sure there are far more. The old case of where there’s smoke there’s fire.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 04:42:12 +0000

I don’t mind seeing EMI get it’s hand held over the fire, but it’s not like Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and relatives of John Lennon and George Harrison need the money. I’m sure EMI has ripped off MANY other artists who actually need the money, but those artists can’t even dream of affording the legal costs it would take to recover what was stolen from them…