MickyDolenz said:

Timmy84 said:

This is how Jackie Wilson got in trouble. Apparently his label boss or executives were all part of the Mafia and when he complained, he almost got thrown off a balcony.

The infamous Brunswick Records ran by Nat Tarnopol. The story was that Jackie wanted to leave and go to Motown since his contract expired, but was "convinced" to resign. Eugene Record asked Nat for a better royalty rate and was beat up by Nat's goons. Stax Records had a wannabe gangster, a street thug named Johnny Baylor (not 'Taylor' the singer). He was originally the manager of Luther Ingram. He started to ignore Luther's business once he (Johnny) got into Stax, but wouldn't let Luther go and pretty much let his career die. It was said that part of the label's downfall was due to his antics.

The more you hear about labels and the things behind the scenes, the more you begin to understand how things were back then. I couldn't imagine being an artist back then with all that stress.

Timmy84 said:

MickyDolenz said:

The infamous Brunswick Records ran by Nat Tarnopol. The story was that Jackie wanted to leave and go to Motown since his contract expired, but was "convinced" to resign. Eugene Record asked Nat for a better royalty rate and was beat up by Nat's goons. Stax Records had a wannabe gangster, a street thug named Johnny Baylor (not 'Taylor' the singer). He was originally the manager of Luther Ingram. He started to ignore Luther's business once he (Johnny) got into Stax, but wouldn't let Luther go and pretty much let his career die. It was said that part of the label's downfall was due to his antics.

The more you hear about labels and the things behind the scenes, the more you begin to understand how things were back then. I couldn't imagine being an artist back then with all that stress.

I was reading a book about the early record business in the early 1900's and it said it was the record labels who pushed for copyright & publishing laws (plus the right to own the master recordings of their performers, in the same way that the Hollywood movie studios owned their actors' & directors' work) in congress to benefit them and to prevent radio, phonograph parlors, and jukebox owners from making money from their records. They were never really meant to benefit the songwriter in the first place. Back then, jukebox owners could make a bigger profit by putting a record in their machine instead of hiring a band. Bands, especially the big bands that popular then, were expensive to hire, particularly for small club owners.

MickyDolenz said:

Timmy84 said:

The more you hear about labels and the things behind the scenes, the more you begin to understand how things were back then. I couldn't imagine being an artist back then with all that stress.

I was reading a book about the early record business in the early 1900's and it said it was the record labels who pushed for copyright & publishing laws (plus the right to own the master recordings of their performers, in the same way that the Hollywood movie studios owned their actors' & directors' work) in congress to benefit them and to prevent radio, phonograph parlors, and jukebox owners from making money from their records. They were never really meant to benefit the songwriter in the first place. Back then, jukebox owners could make a bigger profit by putting a record in their machine instead of hiring a band. Bands, especially the big bands that popular then, were expensive to hire, particularly for small club owners.

I've heard about that.

Timmy84 said:

MickyDolenz said:

I was reading a book about the early record business in the early 1900's and it said it was the record labels who pushed for copyright & publishing laws (plus the right to own the master recordings of their performers, in the same way that the Hollywood movie studios owned their actors' & directors' work) in congress to benefit them and to prevent radio, phonograph parlors, and jukebox owners from making money from their records. They were never really meant to benefit the songwriter in the first place. Back then, jukebox owners could make a bigger profit by putting a record in their machine instead of hiring a band. Bands, especially the big bands that popular then, were expensive to hire, particularly for small club owners.

I've heard about that.

The musicians' union in those days were also against radio, jukeboxes, and the record itself, as they resulted in less work for musicians.