Record Company Never paid STAINED any royalties

Anyone here love "It's Been Awhile "? They got some "advances" on their song, but have never received royalties, and Aaron Lewis says "We still owe them money"

 

I've read here and there over the years that record companies use "creative " financing to fuck artists out of their money.

 

THIS SONG IS EVERYTHING to me
It's on my Playlist leftover from the pandemic

I love artists so much, and they've been screwed over since time immemorial
Art Is Life
Music is Life

 

Thanks for putting this on here. The 436+ plays on it will be from me

 

Love this song!

 

it's on my playlist

 

My first job at Atlantic Records was in the Royalties dept. I've read those contracts and learned to write simplified ones when I started my own independent label. Pretty interesting, but one thing bands eventually realize is that you have to recoup all the money spent on them (videos, recordings, etc) plus a share of the company overhead. You have to sell a lot of records to get in the black to receive royalties. e.g. Every quarter I had to hand deliver million dollar checks to Metallica's A&R guy.

The percentage of royalties also depends on contract negotiations. An already successful band will have higher royalty rates. Bands starting out, not so much. Plus, never sign away your publishing rights. That's where the money is at. Or at least where it was. I've been out of the industry for a long time.

 

Musicians get ripped off by managers, producers, record companies, financial managers, lawyers, streaming services, hangers-on, everyone wants a piece of you.

You know who never got ripped off?
Mick Jagger
Why?
He studied at the London School of Economics.
He's no dummy when it comes to money.

That's what it takes to go up against these parasites. So read your contract, know what it means today and in the future.

I can think of a dozen things to change to benefit a musician in a contract...

 

When I worked at Atlantic Records, there were constant lawsuits. I don't think modern musicians get ripped off much anymore because most use entertainment lawyers. When I say ripped off, I mean taken advantage of by poor negotiation or not understanding the details in their contract.

It's the older musicians that really got ripped off, especially ones that signed away their publishing rights. Every once in a while those R&B artists from the 60s & 70s would show up all pissed off. One time one guy showed up to the reception area with a gun.

There was also a lot of mob involvement back in the old days before I worked in the industry. There was quite a bit of off the book unofficial sales to record stores. It wasn't necessarily the record company profiting, but maybe someone from the company working with organized crime. The mob had its hand in the record companies, stores, concert venues, etc.

Overall, it was a shady industry. Lots of payoffs. Lots of drugs. It got cleaned up over time quite a bit though.