Londell McMillan Mentioned

July 23, 2002 09:46 PM ET

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Major record companies, seeking to quash a brewing revolt by pop stars over royalty payments, on Tuesday released a study backing its claim that the embattled industry has negotiated past contracts fairly.

The release of the study, commissioned by the Recording Industry Association of America, came as lawyers for musicians told a California state Senate hearing in Sacramento that the record industry has used faulty accounting to cheat them out of royalties.

To bolster its claim that the record business is on the up and up, the RIAA released a study by Michigan State University professor Steven Wildman showing that recording contracts have reflected terms agreed to by all parties.

The RIAA is a trade group for the big five labels, including Bertelsmann AG BMG, EMI Group Plc, AOL Time Warner Inc,Vivendi Universal and Sony Corp.

The study, an analysis of over 500 recording contracts between artists and the five major labels between 1994 and 2000, found that in all but one of the cases, artists were represented in their negotiations with record labels by lawyers.

The study also found that deals renegotiated after hit albums tended to be more financially rewarding to artists, evidence, the record industry said, that showed it has shared the wealth with its hit-makers.

"A glaring misimpression exists that record labels are high profit, low risk companies uninterested in paying artists their fair share," said Steven Marks, senior vice president, legal affairs for the RIAA, said in testimony before the state senate panel on Tuesday.

RECORDING ARTISTS ATTEND HEARING

"That's simply not reality. It is no accident that many of the higher-profile accounting and other financial disputes that have arisen over the years have been resolved with new contracts, not a parting of the ways," he said.

Meanwhile, musicians' representatives, including Londell McMillan, legal counsel to the Artist Empowerment Coalition, that includes such artists as Stevie Wonder, Faith Evans and Roberta Flack, argued that record labels routinely underpay royalties and tie artists to unfair contracts.

Recording artists Sam Moore, the veteran soul singer of the 1960s, and rapper Montell Jordan were also at the Sacramento hearing, according to people who attended.

The hearings were called by California Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Martha Escutia, and Senator Kevin Murray, who has authored a bill to repeal an amendment to the California labor code that allows labels enter into lengthier contracts than other sectors.

Artists have decried that legal loophole as well as industry accounting practices, which they say are used to cheat them out of royalties.

McMillan, who also represented Prince in his battle to break his contract with Warner Brothers Records, could not be reached for comment.

But other entertainment industry veterans said the hearing was long overdue.

"Record company accounting is a subject that needs to be discussed and dealt with. I don't think it stems from any criminal intent at all, but let's say that every time you take an audit of a record company's books, you find money due," said Jay Cooper, an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles.

"I've always been successful at settling these royalty disputes without litigation," he said. "Obviously these contracts are subject to interpretation and the labels will take the interpretation that best favors them," he said.

"Record company accounting is a subject that needs to be discussed and dealt with. I don't think it stems from any criminal intent at all, but let's say that every time you take an audit of a record company's books, you find money due," said Jay Cooper, an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles.

tsk tsk tsk...
the saga continues...

No Matter what they say it's the Pimp/Hustler Vibe&the Artist is the Trick/Ho being thrown out there to Bring the Big Chesse the Loot.ask Little Richard getting half a Penny on the Records if that is a Fair Deal?

Salt & Pepper had a 10 year 10 album record deal where they only got 25 cents for each album to split between the 3 in the group. They had a lot of major hits on a lot of those albums.

DaddyMan said:

yep&it wasn't until there last Album did they start to make any real Loot.I heard TLC will Finally be straight after this Album RIP Lisa Lopez.they didn't start making Loot until "Fan Mail" dropped&they toured.LL Cool J is fianlly done with Def Jam&it will be interesting to see what He does next?He had a Sadd deal as well.

They like to get them young and dumb. All the kids want to do is be a star. Two albums later with mega hits they still can't buy moma a house. Everybody thinks they are rich because they've been all over the media. Sad.

DaddyMan said:

Right ON!

Tupac's family had to threaten to go to court to get any money from his label after he was killed. Tupac sold millions of CDs but he wasn't wealthy when he died.

Death Row Records was notorious for treated their artists and other employees badly. Engineers, songwriters, producers etc. who worked for the label would be paid with jewelry and cars. If they objected and said they wanted money instead of jewelry or cars, Suge Knight would get his roughneck bodyguards to *make* them accept the deals they were given.

Toni Braxton sold millions of CD and she came close to having to declare bankruptcy.

Whoever is representing Alicia Keys had better be keeping a close eye on her money. Alicia probably signed a contract that gives her very little.

NikkiDarling said:

2Pac Died Broke&ended up oweing Death Row Money despite bringing in 60 Million to them.Suge did alot of Suspect Tactics to Not Pay various People.The D.O.C,Rbx&Others are still trying to get Paid from them.Suge has Catelog on Pac,Snoop(for a few more Projects)Left-Eye as well among others.Toni Braxton did File.She stated How She Got Pimped&Tricked.LA Reid&Arista re-Signed Her Up two years back but the damage was done.same thing with Tlc.Alicia Keys is touring like crazy&that is the only way to make the Loot overall.

That's right mistermaxx he got screwed over by Suge and it also cost him his life. I read in Source a few years ago that his mother had to go along with Death Row because that fat cunt threatened to release all Pac songs via bootlegging. That guy is a total sellout and is making alot of loot out of Pac's death (and I bet Lisa too in the next year or so).

From reading these articles its taught me that the majority of artists, especially those who are black have been taken advantage of by all these labels who are now more powerful than ever thanks to their ties with media tycoons (th Packers, Murdochs of the world). IMO the only way the system is going to change is if Prince, MJ and this coalition and every other artist who has been played...get together and form some kind of union that protects artists from getting ripped off. Otherwise NOTHING is going to change!
[This message was edited Fri Jul 26 21:05:56 PDT 2002 by fonkywonder]

fonkywonder said:

Fonky as always Your Posts are tight&Slammin".

DaddyMan said:

Salt & Pepa were not signed directly to Next Plateau. They were signed to a production deal w/ Hurby "Lovebug" Azor, who in turn furnished their services to Next Plateau. If they had a beef, the correct person to be angry with would have been him, because he is the one who decided what royalty he would pay them out of what he got from the label. Not to mention, Hurby wrote and produced all of their big hits.

And Hurby got the production rights to everything so he was fine. But since when did Montell Jordan become a RAPPER of all freaking thing? He rapped briefly and unsuccessfully on his R&B debut. WTH???