Record companies don't share money extorted from file-sharing fans with artists

The record industry has sued over 20,000 music fans to "protect artists' copyrights." But they haven't turned over any of the money to artists (of course, they never forked over any of the money from my.mp3.com, Grokster, Napster, etc).

A contingent of prominent artist managers claims that little to none of that money has trickled down to their clients. They are now considering legal action.
"Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for," said lawyer John Branca, who has represented Korn, Don Henley, and The Rolling Stones, among others. "Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don't get paid soon."

Link (via /.)

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Ian70

Record companies have ALWAYS been about making money for themselves, not about making money for their artists. The RIAA even more so. This is not news. (Ask Prince what he thinks about that topic)

It is amusing that the record companies that so blindly tithe to the RIAA have not held them accountable for their accounting (durr, someone call the irony police). Still, I wonder if the artists would have much left over after the RIAA and record companies took their “fair” share.

Dear record companies: either wake up or shut up. Re-learn your trade, ply your trade well, court your customers and EARN what they spend on your artists. Find a way for customers to buy and receive music from you -easier- than they can get it from unscrupulous means on the “Eviltubes”. ;)

Dear artists: -screw- record companies. You don’t need them. Find your fans, make music for them, make them want to love you, make them want to come see you play your music live for them.
Anonymous

Is anyone honestly surprised by this?
Uncle_Max

I sort of figured this was what happened, but I’m glad the artists are finally taking action. Maybe if the record labels don’t stand to make much from these lawsuits, they’ll stop being so cavalier about filing them.
Jeff

What money? The lawyers ate it all! Don’t people understand that this whole DMR thing was invented by lawyers for lawyers? I guess Doctorow knows this.
Valacosa

Wow. Maybe the recording artists wouldn’t get screwed over if they had some sort of union or trade association represent them, or something.

Oh, wait…
skarbreeze

My guess is that the RIAA will claim this is a “service” they provide to the artists, just protecting them and extracting enough cash to keep the wheels greased, not enough to pass down to the little guys.

The sad part of all this madness is the artists are being screwed out of a ton of the profit they should be rightfully earning. The wall standing between artists and consumers is bad, and I only hope a common, viable business model of direct sales or at least a thin interface industry will spring up to replace the present recording industry.
stevew

My hope is that the RIAA gets their asses sued completely off by the artists’ and the institution dries up and blows away. They’re worse than the patent trolls and deserve to cut out of the loop.

Let’s all encourage the music makers to go direct to consumers via the Intertubes.
Thinkerer

@Skarbreeze is correct. Music/media conglomerates and their ilk are, for all intents and purposes, obsolete in terms of distribution of content and should be concentrating on what they can sanely manage (Marketing, live events and mass broadcast). Develop a simple, secure system for artists to sell directly through ITunes/Amazon/Paypal/Cosco online. and all go away. This is roughly in the works already.
Absent

It’s all just a knock on from record companies kaking themselves about the internet. What the major companies are loosing is their business model of being a major record label. I believe what defines a label as a “Major” is owning your own distribution as well as label/roster etc. This allows all sorts of cyclic payments to different wings of themselves (come to think of it, somewhat like those UK MPs employing their families to boost their earnings). What the internet and places like iTunes do is more than a new type of record shop, it makes redundant that lucrative distribution layer of their business model and makes it hard to pay themselves for work they don’t do anymore. This means there could be more profit left which they’ll have to pass to the artists rather than pay to themselves. It may not work out exactly with the figures now, but it’s about what’ll happen if all distribution ends up via the net, they can’t set presidents of doing things differently now.
Susan Oliver

but it’s tidy

I love Teresa.
Joe

Cory, I don’t remember if it was you or someone else, but I recall seeing previous claims that the record companies were losing money on the lawsuits, and at least some copyfighters were cheering this, hoping it would mean that the suits would eventually die out.

I was always skeptical of this, and it looks like it’s just “Hollywood accounting”, in which studios and record companies always pretend that all the money is gone and none is left to share with the artists.
Dillo

The EntertainmentIndustrialComplex is ripping off artists and not paying them!?!??!
NO!
Say it isn’t so!
moonracer23

I imagine the record companies aren’t making much profit (if any) from these lawsuits. The Function of the suits is more of a tool to put fear in the consumer.

The ridiculously high fines against moms and kids or whatever get press and cause controversy. A few people get mad and protest. A lot more think “geez, these people mean business! I’d better delete my mp3 collection!”
Baldhead

I thought this was common knowledge already. What is less commonly known is that most artists lack any clause that accounts for legit digital downloads, like iTunes. Meaning you think you’re doing the right thing by the artist by paying for your download but WHOOPS! they see none of the money, because the labels isn’t legally required to pay them. So the labels gets to spend $0 on production costs and get all the money. Nice system eh?
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Anonymous, I don’t think anyone’s surprised, but it’s tidy to have our suspicions confirmed.
ZzmeeY

You’re rigt DILLO.
F*CK the RIAA and all that assholes!!!