{{{Read this article from the Fox News 411 site. I know this not directl
related to Prince but,it does concern dishonest business practices that go on in the recording industry.
Record Companies Can't Account for Their Practices}}}
What if you worked for a company for 30 years - say, starting in 1967
and
ending in 1997 - and then realized the company had never paid into your
pension fund? You'd be pretty steamed.
That's what happened to Sam Moore from the famous R&B group Sam & Dave.
He
had hits with Atlantic Records, which is part of Time Warner, like "Soul
Man," "Hold On I'm Coming" and dozens of others.
Even though new hits stopped coming, the old ones kept selling. He
figured
that when he reached retirement, Atlantic would have been paying his
pension
into his union, which is called AFTRA (American Federation of Television
and
Radio Artists).
When Moore applied for his pension, he was told that he had benefits
coming
to him. What a relief, he thought. Then he got the bad news. AFTRA was
all
set to pay him a whopping $67 a month. This is the same AFTRA that now
boasts a $1.2 billion surplus.
That $67 figure came not from the money Sam thought he was getting from
Atlantic, but from radio and television appearances he'd made over the
years. It turned out that Atlantic had never paid one dime into his
pension
fund. Nothing. Nada.
Think of all the times you've heard "Soul Man" played on the radio, or
in
clubs and restaurants. Sam Moore was not getting paid for any of it.
Push has come to shove, though. Moore, along with two dozen or so other
artists - including some who've passed away - sued AFTRA and the record
companies for their proper compensation.
It turns out, by the way, that you don't have to be a member of AFTRA to
qualify. If you recorded songs for a record company that was a signatory
of
AFTRA - which means all of them - you qualify for a pension. And not
just
black artists or those from the '60s. The Eagles, for example, are as
mad as
Sam Moore about what's happened.
Last month, AFTRA tried to push a settlement through in the ongoing
case.
They offered to pay each of the plaintiffs $100,000 apiece, and let the
rest
of the recording artists twist in the wind.
But many of the plaintiffs, including Moore, objected, and the judge
took
them seriously. Moore figured that he was probably owed about a million
bucks. So the judge told all sides to go back to the drawing board and
start
over.
Tomorrow, all the attorneys involved in the case - representing AFTRA,
its
pension fund, the recording industry organization RIAA, the record
labels,
the plaintiffs, etc. - will meet in Scottsdale, Ariz., to start
negotiations. It should be interesting since one law firm, Proskauer
Rose,
represents both the AFTRA fund and the Recording Industry Association of
America.
The record labels are united on one front: They don't want to have pay
about
20,000 different artists 30 years of back pension and health benefits.
At a hearing in Sacramento last week, Montell Jordan - a more
contemporary
artist whose big hit was "This Is How We Do It" - revealed that he, like
a
lot of other music stars, had no idea he was supposed to get health
benefits
from his record company. When his wife gave birth, Jordan said, he
brought
cash to the hospital.
At the same hearing, music industry lawyer Don Engel, called the record
companies' accounting practices "intentionally fraudulent" and compared
them
to WorldCom and Enron. Only, the record companies have been doing this
since
Elvis Presley wore tight pants. They've just never been questioned about
it.

Jordan, by the way, testified that even though "This Is How We Do It"
sold 2
million copies, his record company says he's never broken even with them
or
turned a profit.
I know another artist who had hits in the '70s, and whose record company
says the same thing. My guess is there are hundreds or thousands more
stories like these. They're all about to come out as the rock generation
ages into retirement. If so, Enron is going to look like a cakewalk by
comparison.
More, as the situation develops ...