Journey's Producer Sues Sony Over Unpaid Royalties For 21 Classic Songs
from the not-just-artists-getting-screwed dept
For years, we have highlighted the great lengths that major labels go through to avoid paying out royalties to artists. These actions culminated in a number of artists suing the label in an attempt to actually be paid the royalties owed to them on music sales. Sony hasn't been immune to these lawsuits either. In fact, it has just recently settled a lawsuit over iTunes sales. With all these attempts to avoid paying artists and then being forced to by the courts, is it really a surprise to learn that artists aren't the only ones getting screwed by these labels?While most of our stories revolve around the artists who get screwed, there are other people getting screwed in the process as well. One of these people is a music producer by the name of Roy Thomas Baker, a producer for the likes of Queen, Guns N' Roses and Journey. Roy is now suing Sony for unpaid royalties on 21 Journey songs.
Sony was supposed to pay Baker royalties under a producer agreement, according to his 18-page federal lawsuit. But Baker says an audit of Sony's books revealed that the music company had been underreporting his royalties by more than $475,000 for the period audited.If these allegations against Sony are true, that is quite a lot of money that Sony was not paying out. It really isn't surprising at all though. We have seen such payment dodging from all throughout the legacy entertainment industries. Publishers, labels, movie studios and game publishers have all used such tricks to avoid paying out money to the people who actually make possible the income they have. All the while claiming that they support the people in the trenches.
He says Sony is refusing to release other documents that might uncover additional underreporting since the audit, and he estimates that his royalties may have been underreported by more than $500,000 before the audit using Sony's incorrect rates.
This lawsuit also highlights something we pointed out about that settlement Sony made earlier in the year, that Sony got off way too easily.
Baker says he opted out of a class action over Sony's alleged failure to correctly pay artists for downloaded music because the proposed settlement in March "is wholly insufficient to make plaintiff whole."Because no matter how you worked out the split of the $5 million that Sony set aside for settlement, Roy would not have made anything close to the $475,000 he says he is owed. If other artists and producers feel the same way, Sony's legal team won't get any rest any time soon.
All in all, these lawsuits are just another indication that the entertainment industry is changing. As more and more artists are able to bypass legacy gatekeepers and only use those enablers that truly add value to their work and make more money in the process, those artists stuck with legacy gatekeepers will wonder why they aren't making as much money as they feel they should. They will eventually leave those gatekeepers, but in the meantime, we will see a whole lot more actions like this as those artists and other enablers seek to get paid.
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Filed Under: copyright, journey, music labels, roy thomas baker, royalties
Companies: sony
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Don't Stop Believing that they'll get what is coming to them, and they'll soon be giving out checks Anyway You Want It.
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Sony is
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When you can blame the low figures on "piracy" and keep your books from being properly audited, there is a serious problem. The fact there was a class action lawsuit really should wake the artists up... the biggest thieves are the labels.
And just for giggles, has the RIAA released any statement about this label screwing over the artist? They are the first ones to jump on the bandwagon to blame pirates "stealing" imaginary dollars from the poor artists, where the hell are they when a label is doing it?
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Don't Stop Believing that they'll get what is coming to them, and they'll soon be giving out checks Anyway You Want It.
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Comment #2 and #3
Piracy is not the problem.
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The labels gave this man some money, not enough, but not enough is greater than zero!
/1st attempt to act like a troll - How'd I do?
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:-###..
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Also, a couple more unprovable but true-sounding assertions couldn't hurt.
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Labels Stink.
Let the big incumbent labels stew in their own juices when they realize Artists can be smart and inovative enough to establish their own public relations machina, virtual storefronts that aren't dictated to by the RIAA or MPAA. That is unless you want to contribute to the problem of imaginary theivery from both ends where profit goes directly into the court systems.
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Funny how that works.
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Oh and it never hurts to blame Google as well.
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Aug 13th, 2012 @ 4:18pm
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDXPNsnIks4
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MPAA
This could be used to blow them out of the water legally as if they are not prepared to fight the labels for the artists then they are only there to protect the billionaires that are stealing from them.
I hope that more is said about this , I hope it is talked about and written about and discussed in the media and the MPAA is forced to admit they are not interested in the artists, only the rich bastards that are blatantly stealing from them.
If they do not do something to find all and I do mean all of the money stolen from artists they have no defence and should have no right to say they are fighting for the artists, they are fighting for big business, and there right to steal from the artists.
I am not very good at writing articles but I hope Mike that you read my attempt to put words together and decide to investigate the MPAA in this manor or at least get people discussing it.
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But, they've probably been too obsessed with trashing Google in other articles to bother with that particular line of attack here. They'll be back in the next such article.
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I am starting to wonder if it's a case of past music people thinking they can lead the courts by showing them about "hollywood accounting", without really truly justifying the amounts.
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I am starting to wonder if it's a case of past music people thinking they can lead the courts by showing them about "hollywood accounting", without really truly justifying the amounts.
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I think Chris Dodd has a picture of Google's logo with the writings "Anti-Christ" attached to it where he practices with darts. So actually blaming Google should award any trolling attempt several troll points after all it's a direct attack against the devil. /lol
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Money money money kaching...
The problem the labels have is that they cannot just claim bankruptcy as it is theft and if anything all assets of those involved can be seized to pay the money due to the artists. Now this would be a nice court case to follow, if it happened.
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Heartless Bastards
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In this case the proofs are that Sony have paid out on mechanicals to the publishing Company but have not paid out corresponding producer royalties .....the producer is the writer!!!!!!!
Both incorrect royalty rates and underpayment of proven sales apply in this cases,,,,,
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