(TV) Major labels....recent coms

["Raymond" <ray@wavewalker.freeserve.co.uk>]

Hi all,
         One of the happiest days of my life was when my former band That
Petrol Emotion got dropped from Virgin records (after it was bought out by
EMI here in the uk).
We managed to escape owing a considerable amount of money which we would
probably never have been able to pay back anyway-something in the region of
1.75 million pounds!-Aaargh!-(though our weekly wage during this whole
period was 150 pounds a week each-so no begging letters please!)...

The record company will always encourage bands to spend "your"money -for
them bigger is ALWAYS better-and then the more in debt you are to them the
more they think they can tell you what to do.
However so much is now spent on publicity,advertising and videos these days
that even if you do sell a good lot of records you STILL mightn't see any
money at all-the whole situation is completely crazy...see for example the
amount of recent successful r&b pop acts who have had to declare themselves
bankrupt...

I certainly hope in the future that because of the new technology there'll
be a fairer deal for artists in general re royalties/splits/back catalogue
etc which might enable us to to make a "decent" living and continue
recording which is all most of us ever want in the first place anyway.....

Artist-friendly guys like Clive Davis seem to be getting pushed out of the
industry more and more unfortunately these days but I'm certain that he'll
return in some form of other and have the last laugh...as someone has
already posted already (sorry i can't remember who) the person or persons
who can figure out the best way to move forward now when things are looking
a bit unstable and uncertain will ultimately clean up.
Personally i hope the victors will be the people who are prepared to develop
acts over time rather than look for an instant and quick return-it's that
kind of attitude that is strangling things as they stand....

Best...R.



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