clavus

I have a friends who are in the music industry to varying degrees. Most Fridays I drink beers with people who have, at one time in their lives, toured the world and headlined at large-scale venues.

Here's an email I just got from one of my industry-wise friends -
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So I'm watching Leno last night and on comes this
commercial and I start to seriously wig-out. A large
asian woman is writing a postcard with a calligraphy
brush, making fancy kanji symbols. She's sitting in
what looks like a large inner garden/bar at some
hotel, a fountain spitting out water behind her. The
chorus of AskMeNoQuestions is playing in the
background and it's mixed to sound like it's coming
through a muzak-style PA system. There's a close-up
of her face right when the line, "...ask me no
questions, and I'll tell you no lies.." is sung. She
hears this, freaks out, and frantically tries to
erase a line from her postcard. Cut to a LV hotel
assn logo with the voiceover, "Las Vegas....whatever
happens here, stays here."

About 10 minutes later I surf over to the Jimmy Kimmel
Show on ABC. "Our" ad comes on during the next
commercial break. As an experiment, I surf over to
CBS. The ad comes on again during the next commercial
break.
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He contacted his label to find out what kind of cash he will be making from this commercial. Their reply was basically, "Um, ya. We were going to...um...talk to you about that. You made just enough to..er, cover the advance we paid you. What a coincidence! If we sell it to anybody else, those royalty checks will just start rolling in."

There is no way for him to see the books. He is totally at their mercy. This is just the way the game is played.

Don't quit your day job.

- gord

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Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.

Cynthetiq

wow... another personage gets fucked by the man...

My first girlfriend's father was the keyboardist for Strawberry Alarmclock... Insense and Peppermints was their big hit. We used to chuckle at the royalty checks he'd get every so often which was around US$.75.

I don't know what he kind of money he got from Austin Powers sales... probably a good amount...

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gibber71

I'm assuming the music in the commercial was written by your friend.In that cause he must have really signed a bad contract or got bad advise or something.Usually publishing companies(those who pay royalties;mechanical,syncronized etc) will open the books to artists.Actual any good entertainment lawyer would suggest that clause first off before signing anything.Hope your buddy gets his money

pseudopsycho

Some labels can be dicks. Just look at Nirvana and the shit they went through at SubPop before switching to Geffen.

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We all go a little mad sometimes.
-Anthony Perkins, "Psycho"

Rant

I have a couple friends that are in bands and they say the money is in the tshirts and crap they sell on tour, not in CD sales-they say they barely break even...maybe if they were bigger, but not yet. Don't know about commercials and stuff tho since none of their stuff has ever been used.

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What would Jesus do.......for a Klondike bar

Stilts

Yeah, the fact that the record companies are a bunch of crooks is the exact same reason that I'm not a rock star too (that and the fact that when I sing it sounds like someone's torturing some poor animal to death)