Taking Down Sony...If They Didn't Own Me

One of the largest problems I have with the record industry is the control over EVERY aspect of an artists life that they hold. Bands are at the complete mercy of their label and have to go to them for nearly everything. Granted, given a band's popularity, ANYTHING they want will gladly be provided to them, however any funds "fronted" by the label MUST be paid prior to the artist receiving any royalties. In addition, any work done under a label becomes property of the label. So, in essence, the artists write and record fantastic work, pride themselves on it, and technically, it isn't even theirs. Yes, bands get a percentage of the sales of the record and any royalties from licensing the song, but they have no control over who the label sells their work to. For example, let's say Fall Out Boy's "Dance, Dance" is licensed to BMW for a commercial. Maybe Pete Wentz is USA true blue kind of guy and only buys American-made products and doesn't want his work associated with anything but American products....well, too fucking bad, bro. You and your emo haircut have no say, because you don't own the rights to your song, and besides, you owe the label another 4 million for all the crap you guys bought during the recording of your last album. Yeah, that's right, take a peek at this, again let's use Fall Out Boy as an example, and during the recording of their new album, the label fronts the guys 10 million for studio time, new guitars, and misc. expenses. So, they cut the album and it sells...poorly. The take from the sales after the first year is 4 million. Let's say the label licensed a song form the album for 1 million and it produced 1 million in royalties. Sounds like FOB is living fat right? Wrong. Check this:

"Fronted" Money: $10 Million
Sales: $4 million
Licensing: $1 million
Royalties: $1 million

Money Owed to label: $10 Million
Sales, Licensing & Royalties: $6 million
Money STILL owed to label (Fronted money minus S+L+R): $4 Million.

That's right, they STILL owe their label $4 Million bucks? Which means they they will see ZERO dollars from their work until that $4 million is paid. Which could take years if the album was awful and stopped selling. What's a band to do? Stay tuned....