Interesting Tim O'Reilly article.

From: Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner <spc_at_conman.org>
Date: Sat Dec 14 16:15:01 2002

It was thus said that the Great Wayne M. Smith once stated:
>
> > 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.

  So you mean that the artist makes even *less* than $4,000?

  And you are still defending the RIAA?

  While not the music industry, it is well known that you *never* agree to a
percentage of the net in Hollywood (movie industry) but of the *gross* since
*no* movie ever *nets* if the accountants are any good. Even a movie
pulling in thrice what it cost is still considered having lost money (I
suspect it has to pull in ten times the amount before a net profit is
called).

  -spc (How pulling in three times the expense can still be considered
        loosing money I will never know ... )
Received on Sat Dec 14 2002 - 16:15:01 GMT