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Re: (TV) Re: TV Digest V1 #4
>>>record labels (regardless of how much we dislike them) are
>>>really not supposed to be charity institutions.
maybe not. But check out this story of some friends of mine who were
signed
to RCA in the mid-90's. They'll remain nameless. Anyway, RCA signed them to
a
$350,000/5 record deal. The band's 1st LP sold over 100,000 units because of
a minor MTV hit. Time for the 2nd LP. The band submitted demo after demo.
RCA kept rejecting the tapes saying the songs weren't up to snuff. How about
doing some co-writing. Still no good. After a year and half of this it turns
out that good ol' RCA was trying to break the band's spirit so that the band
would
break up and then RCA wouldn't have to pay them the $150,000 that they were
guaranteed
if RCA decided to drop them before their 2nd LP. Their A&R Rep admitted this
once RCA
realized that the band were not going to break up even though they kept
second guessing
themselves because of all the rejection from the company. They even had
their management
casting doubts. Nice guys at RCA! What they didn't know was that these guys
were friends
since grammar school, playing together for over 15 years so that there was
no way they
were going to break the bands spirit. After RCA knew that they either had to
cough up
the dough or make another LP they started using lame excuses as to why they
weren't going to pay the band their "contract negotiated deal" $150,000. I'm
not
even going to get into the lame excuses. Trust me, the reasons were
ludicrous.
The majors may not be a charity but that's no reason to try and break up a
band either.
This kind of thing goes on all the time. The majors are nothing more than
blood sucking
pigs who could careless about the artist(s).
Did you know that no one from TV has seen a dime from sales of marquee
moon? An
LP which is suppose to have at this point sold 500,000 units. Mpre than
enough for
Elektra to have recouped their investment. But because there's really not
enough
money for greedy "Entertainment" lawyers no one will go to bat for the band.
It's
not worth their time. Though I'm sure the band members could pay their
rent's
for a few months with the money. Again, maybe not a charity but how about a
little
compassion for the struggling muscian just trying to pay his rent.
Happy, healthy, and safe New Year to one and all. M T C
>
>no doubt about that, but that still doesn't mean we shouldn't do all that we
>can to fuck em & fuck em good.
>
>>>Maybe Michael would like to go
>>>back to the pre-Beethoven patronage system?
>
>& what would be the difference???
>honestly, i'd like to see corporate as well as private funding for the arts
>go by the wayside...as over the top as this sounds, it might have the effect
>of making art a rebellious agent, something truly underground & "counter"
>cultural.
>
>i've said enough already.
>i'll leave the MBA issue to cooler (& perhaps saner) minds.
>______________________________________________
>Eric S. Gregory
>IVR Assistant
>egregory@standard.com
>(503) 321-8503
>____________________________________________
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Emilie Hsu [mailto:ehsu@mindspring.com]
>Sent: Thursday, December 30, 1999 10:03 AM
>To: tv@obbard.com
>Subject: (TV) Re: TV Digest V1 #4
>
>
>
>
>Come on Michael, record labels (regardless of how much we dislike them) are
>really not supposed to be charity institutions. Should Britney Spear start
>losing money, they would drop her as well. Maybe Michael would like to go
>back to the pre-Beethoven patronage system? The blanket statement on all
>MBA's is pretty offensive, man, most MBA's I know would probably not regard
>working for a record label as their primary aspiration.
>
>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 22:55:20 -0500
>> From: Michael Olcsvary <olcsvary@erols.com>
>> Subject: (TV) Re: Whatever happened to artist development?
>>
>> You know, as much as I dislike most of his post -"Hot Rats" work, Frank
>Zappa
>> had it nailed when he said there were two things that had truly messed up
>life
>> and both of them had three letters. The second was MBA, since having
>those
>> three magic letters on your resume gives you automatic validity in the
>eyes of
>> the suits ( who don't know shit from shinola anyway ) and confers the
>ability
>> to do what you want even though you don't know what the hell you're doing.
>> beats..."
>
>> - --- Michael Olcsvary <olcsvary@erols.com> wrote:
>> > And imagine some bean counter hearing the tapes of the next Verlaine
>> > effort and saying: "Gosh, Tom, we like it a lot, but I don't hear a
>single.
>> > Now we could bring in Britney Spears on this track and overdub some
>hip-hop
>> > beats..."
>
>
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