[acid-jazz] BMG Saves The Day

From: Steven Catanzaro (stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com)
Date: Wed Nov 20 2002 - 21:32:03 CET

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    This gleaned from the business section of today's LA Times;

    Bertelsmann Music Group announcd that they would introduce a "fairer, more
    transparent" accounting system for royalty payments to artists.

    The old system gave the artist 12% of the retail price, less deductions of
    25% for packaging, as well as further deductions for CD technology.

    In addition to these deductions, arcane deductions for breakages and the
    like are tacked on, even though CD's have made many of these deductions
    obsolete.

    BMG says it is responding to calls from artists and lawmakers about the
    questionable accounting practices.

    BMG chair Rolf Schmidt Holtz says, "One reason this industry has ended up
    with such a bad iage is because we could not look a guy in the eye and tell
    him, as a partner, that the contract he was about to sign was fair."

    The new system will eliminate these arcane deductions, and pay the artist 9%
    of the average wholesale price of the unit. Much easier to figure out your
    royalties that way!

    And for those of you calculating;

    Under the old system, w. all the deductions, the artist earned $1.03 per CD
    sold.

    Under the NEW, FAIR BMG system, the artist will earn $1.03 per CD sold.

    Thank you BMG!



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