Interesting Tim O'Reilly article.

From: Wayne M. Smith <wmsmith_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Sat Dec 14 13:43:00 2002

> It was thus said that the Great Wayne M. Smith once stated:
> >
> > > -BZZZTTTT- Wrong answer... the recording industry contracts state that
> > > Yes, you can ahve your contract audited, but only with a list of
'approved'
> > > auditors, as a matter of fact if you show your contract to ANYONE you are
> > > in violation of the contract.
> >
> > I don't think that's right. There are restrictions that prevent hiring an
> > auditor on a contingency fee basis, and using an auditor who is performing
an
> > audit of the same company on behalf of another artist at the same time. I
have
> > never heard of the "approved list" you mention.
>
> According to Steve Albini [1] a band who sells 250,000 albums (not that
> bad a showing) will make $710,000 for the record company, and only $4,000
> *per band member*. $4,000. Given that an audit can cost anywhere from
> $10,000-$100,000 [2], even if the band in question *wanted* an audit, they
> aren't going to very well afford one, are they? And there *are*
> restrictions on what they can audit [3], but I've yet to find any
> restrictions on who can do the auditing.

I read Albini's article. The $710,000 number he puts out is "gross proft" which
is not what the record company makes. The net is much lower.
Received on Sat Dec 14 2002 - 13:43:00 GMT