Blog Post Details How Labels Shaft Bands

Too Much Joy weren’t metal, but anyone in a band looking for a major label deal needs to read this now. The band, who broke up in 1999, put out three records through Warner Bros., and never really caught on, but that’s beside the point. In an amazing and sobering blog post, the band’s Timothy Quirk writes about receiving a digital royalty statement for the three Warner albums, which, while out of print physically, had been available digitally for five years.

While the band had been collecting thousands of dollars in digital royalties from their four independent albums, the statements from the three WB albums kept being showing $0 in digital sales against the band’s ridiculous unrecouped balance of $395,277. It took Quirk 13 months to finally get their digital royalties added, with a grand result of $62.47. Here’s why it’s really ridiculous, though. Quirk works at Rhapsody, so he knows a thing or two about what his band should be making digitally. And it was only through his job that he was given the favor of getting anything to show up on the statement at all. He’d appeared on a panel with someone in business affairs from Warner Bros., and mentioned that he’d been trying to get their iTunes sales reported.

What the fuck?

I mean, we all know that major labels are supposed to be venal masters of hiding money from artists, but they’re also supposed to be good at it, right? This figure wasn’t insulting because it was so small, it was insulting because it was so stupid.

Granted, a band that never made the label money is much lower on the priority scale than a current multi-platinum band that demands proper accounting. But reading Quirk’s blog post details how sloppy and lazy WB is, and while he was able to get his (badly accounted for and ridiculously low)  royalty statement because of his persistence and someone he randomly met, what does that mean for the countless other bands without connections that aren’t the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Linkin Park?

Guitar Center Subject Of Class Action Lawsuit

Hey musicians, did you buy a guitar from musical instrument giant Guitar Center between 2005 and 2007? If so, you might be eligible for a settlement. A class action lawsuit has been filed against both Guitar Center and the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), claiming that the two conspired to fix pricing on fretted instruments including acoustic and electric guitars, banjos, violins, and more.

The suit claims that NAMM organized meetings and programs where competing retailers were encouraged to agree on strategies for price-fixing, which is anti-competitive.

“Guitars and other fretted instruments comprise a multi-million dollar industry in the United States alone, and one that’s heavily influenced by a handful of industry giants like Guitar Center,” said Steve Berman, lead attorney and managing partner at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, who filed the suit. “We contend that, even with its market domination, the company acted illegally to rig the marketplace to its benefit.”

The suit, filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles, also claims that defenants tried to quash competition from online retailers by threatening to boycott manufacturers selling through online competitors. If you bought a fretted instrument between 2005 and 2007, you can become part of the class action suit here.

Ticketmaster Accused Of Attempting Shady Back Room Scalping Antics

The Wall Street Journal published a pretty damning article last week about Ticketmaster and its CEO Irving Azoff, revealing an allegedly attempted plan to pass premium tickets directly to ticket brokers (scalpers) in exchange for a percentage of the profits.

The deal, allegedly codenamed “Project Showtime”, only fell apart because of distrust between the participants. That was not before the secondary ticket outlets were given hundreds of premium tickets in a back room deal for Van Halen’s (a management client of Azoff) reunion tour that reportedly netted the band an additional $1 million.

Project Showtime was allegedly shut down in a meeting led by Azoff in the summer of 2007. “I always knew we’d end up in a room together,” he reportedly told the group. “I just thought it would be a courtroom.” Present were senior executives from Ticketmaster, promoters AEG Live and MSG Entertainment, as well as the owners of ticket brokers Boston-based Ace Ticket, LA’s Barry’s Tickets Service, Floridas’ Total Tickets, Chicago’s Gold Coast, New York City’s Elite Ticket and Alliance Tickets, which operates in Denver, Las Vegas and Seattle.

Both moves run contradictory to Azoff’s more recent comments as the now-head of Ticketmaster campaigns for government approval of a merger with promoter Live Nation. It should also be noted that Azoff was not yet the CEO of Ticketmaster during all this “Project Showtime” business, but his Front Line Management firm was already partially owned by the ticket giant.

Pirate Bay Deal Is Shay-Dee, Possibly On The Rocks (Again)?

This Pirate Bay sale (and subsequent legalization) is really starting to annoy me. Rumors of the deal falling apart leaked out last month, claiming financial struggles and infighting at would-be purchaser Global Gaming Factory. Then yesterday saw an announcement that the deal was done. Now Torrent Freak reports that a key partner in the restructuring of the new Pirate Bay is also calling shenanigans:

Peerialism, the company set to provide the revolutionary P2P technology behind the new Pirate Bay, has announced that it is doubtful that it will do any business with Global Gaming Factory. GGF are supposed to buy Peerialism, but CEO Johan Ljungberg said that’s doubtful since the company has no money.

In addition to having little to no money to buy The Pirate Bay for 60 million kronor ($7.8m), GGF also has to find 100 million Swedish kronor to buy Peerialism, the company under agreement to provide the core technology behind the project.

However, Peerialism CEO Johan Ljungberg said today that he thinks there will be no business done between the two companies.

“The [shareholders] meeting gave us no direct answer at all, but based on declarations by GGF before and after the meeting, and the reporting that has taken place in recent days, we conclude that GGF will not succeed in obtaining any financing,” Ljungberg told di.se.

The agreement between Peerialism and GGF states that the full purchase price must be paid by September 30, which Ljungberg says is unlikely. I’ve said this before, but whodathunk a purchase of The fucking Pirate Bay would be mired in vague business practices? Despite insistence that the deal is done (done, done, done – swearsies), it seems that this whole thing could fall apart at any minute. At least I’ve had the fun of typing all these kooky European names.

Korn Plans Four Digital EPs Via Subscription Service

Korn has announced its next release will come in the form of four digital EPs rather than a formal album. Some non-metal bands like Radiohead and the Bouncing Souls have toyed with the idea of foregoing albums for periodic EPs/singles, and I applaud the idea. It encourages immediacy, lowers the price point and engages fans.

But Korn is doing it the, well, Korn way. The four EPs will be spread out over a 12-month span, and you need to subscribe to a $6.95 per month plan to get the music. Again: 12 month subscription, four releases. And they’re not proper new songs. Per Revivl:

I start doing some research and find out that the material on these EP’s are unreleased tracks and a demo version of a new song which appear on their “real” release.

That’s all I needed to see to know that this is more of a fan club then anything else. Yes they are giving away 4 digital EP’s but it’s not your main release. You still have a major label to push your main album. I can’t say that I’ve ever thought about it before, but unless you are willing to put your best stuff on the line with none of the traditional hand rails to guide you through the process, then it’s not breaking any new ground. I will say in Korn’s defense that they aren’t pushing it like they are the next NIN’s or anything like that but when you read the headline it certainly looks like they are trying something different.

So what if this was their main release? What if they really did separate the main record into 4 EP’s spread out a 12 month span. Well at $6.95 a month, the fans would be paying a much higher price if they stayed in the entire year but if the band could offer more value then it does become a bit more interesting. I love the idea of continuity but I really think you would have to offer a version that could be purchased or given away in combination. However if you did that then it becomes a fan club again. Would users be willing to pay more (like a subscription) but also receive more stuff like tickets, merchandise, etc but without any other alternative to get the album? Legal alternative that is! Yeah that could be a problem.

We’re hoping to get more details on this soon, but for now, it seems kinda sketchy.

Pirate Bay Acquisition Hits Murky Waters, Likely To Be Marooned

I couldn’t help myself.

This Pirate Bay sale was never going to be all smooth sailing (sorry, too easy!). We already knew would-be purchaser Global Gaming Factory had yet to raise the nearly $8 million it needed by the end of July. And as the 31st draws near, Torrent Freak is reporting Wayne Rosso, the former Grokster CEO who was brought in to design a legitimized Pirate Bay’s business plan, says the sale is now unlikely as he exits the company. Meanwhile, The Pirate Bay is giving GGF one week before terminating the deal.

However, Rosso has already quit his position, claiming GGF’s CEO Mr. Pandeya was not straightforward with him.

“We decided that we’re not going risk our reputation further,” Rosso told TorrentFreak. According to Rosso he and his partners never received the payments promised to them and Mr. Pandeya made several other promises he couldn’t keep either.

“The more time we spent with Mr. Pandeya, the less confident we were,” Rosso said, adding that he feels the funding required to close the deal is not going to be raised based on the current lack of workable plans.

“I don’t think there’s going to be any money raised with GGF’s current (lack of) plans,” Rosso told TorrentFreak. Besides Rosso and his partners, the people who were supposed to finance the acquisition were also misinformed.

What? A company interested in purchasing the world’s most notorious torrent site is acting shady? Get out!

The Jig Is Up! FTC To Crack Down On Shady Blogging Practices

There goes my summer vacation! The Federal Trade Commission has announced plans to issue guidelines and monitor blogs for accepting undisclosed payments or gifts in exchange for favorable coverage:

Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars for a 200-word post. Bloggers vary in how they disclose such freebies, if they do so at all.

The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

This would be the first time the FTC involves itself in regulating bloggers. Depending on the broadness/vagueness of these guidelines, this could affect even less serious common practices such as linking to an online retailer and collecting commissions for any sales from it. Generally speaking, I think metal blogs aren’t the ones drawing attention here – our favorite bands are too careful with their money to engage in this kind of tomfoolery (but if I find out they do, and just never bribed me, I’m gonna be pissed…).

Ticketmaster CEO Has More Ideas To Annoy You With

Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff spoke at the All Things Digital Conference this week and had some interesting things to say, especially in light of Ticketmaster’s recent legal woes. He’s surprisingly candid when discussing subsidiary ticket re-sale site TicketsNow, reiterating previous quotes saying he would not have bought the site had he been CEO at the time, and would even be open to selling it.

The big solution he kept pushing during the discussion was “dynamic pricing” – in other words, prices for the same tickets change as demand goes up or down – basically the same scalping process without the middle man. He’s encouraging artists to do so through Ticketmaster, expecting that it would raise revenue while “making people happy” (what?). Just one caveat: “we have to keep the press from chastising artists that use dynamic pricing.” Good luck with that!

Ticketmaster Facing Class Action Lawsuits, Self-Scalping Allegations

Ticketmaster, always known for its sparkling public image, is facing two major class action lawsuits in New Jersey and Massachusetts along with some serious allegations.

Pollstar reports the suits address how TM conducts business with its subsidiary ticket-resale site TicketsNow. The New Jersey suit, filed May 11 over a purchase made for The Dead tickets (oh boy), claims Ticketmaster and TicketsNow is pushing second-hand tickets on potential customers at an inflated price while not overtly disclosing the original ticket value.

There, Kelly was charged nearly $830 for four tickets. The complaint alleges Kelly was not informed of the tickets’ face value ($99) until he received them in the mail.

Just days later, John O’Hurley of Massachusetts filed another proposed class-action complaint. O’Hurley apparently had a similar experience to Kelly when he attempted to purchase two tickets to a Phish concert Jan. 31 and was “redirected” to TicketsNow.

The subtext here is that it’s curious how large chunks of tickets wind up on TicketsNow within seconds of Ticketmaster’s public on-sales. Since TicketNow’s launch, public suspicion has grown that Ticketmaster is allegedly holding aside quantities of tickets with the intent of posting on TicketsNow at inflated prices. Such practices are at best legally questionable and likely fall under bait-and-switch regulations, but remain nothing more than allegations. We’ll keep you up to date as this story unfolds.

Also, since when are the people causing trouble hippies who just wanna see Phish and The Dead?

UPDATE: While these suits are new, a similar controversy was settled with a New Jersey Springsteen show in January, and Ticketmaster agreed to stop some tactics that tried to push traffic towards TicketsNow. It didn’t solve all of the complaints, obviously, and anyone who purchased tickets to the Springsteen show is excluded from any possible settlement from the new class action suits.