David Emery OnlineMy Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty Statement
1 December 2009
But there’s another possibility – one I don’t necessarily subscribe to, but one that could be avoided entirely by humoring pests like me. There’s a theory that labels and publishers deliberately avoid creating the transparent accounting systems today’s technology enables. Because accurately accounting to my silly little band would mean accurately accounting to the less silly bands that are recouped, and paying them more money as a result.
I’d chalk it down to sheer volume of numbers – number of digital services x number of new digital services every month x number of artists x number of releases. Maybe with a dab of evil and a dash of laziness on the side, of course.
Well worth a read though if you have even a vague interest in how artists actually get paid (or not, in reality) by record labels.
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