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Den Of Thieves

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a RECORD COMPANY names its new video division DEN OF THIEVES!

God, you’d be stunned at the backlash I got for not writing about Ahmet Ertegun’s failure to pay royalties.  Oh, Ahmet looked like a hero to those enjoying his company’s productions, but talk to those who recorded for him, especially prior to the rock era, they’re not so full of laudatory words.

That’s how far we’ve come, there’s no social consciousness, no corporate responsibility, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.  Didn’t ANYBODY working at Warner say HEY, WAIT A MINUTE?  That this might be bad for the company’s image, that it might add fuel to the fire?  I mean they take the company private, load it up with debt, pay back their investment and MORE, produce lousy quarterly results and then BRAG ABOUT THEIR LAWLESSNESS?

Maybe it’s the curse of getting older, I used to believe the old white men running this country actually knew what they were doing.  Now I realize oftentimes they’re uneducated hacks who will do anything that lines their pockets.

Is the name "Den Of Thieves" going to increase their revenues one little bit?  Is it going to make this company cool?  Hell, it appears it’s a B2B thing anyway.  It’s not like a sexy brand name is necessary to appeal to consumers.  And, it’s not like consumers are in bed with major labels right now anyway.  They’re SUSPICIOUS of major labels.  Rather than suing customers and raising prices, maybe labels should show their gratitude!  By giving more for less!  Appreciating that they’re nowhere without buyers.  But who can sympathize with fat cat frat boys paying themselves millions while releasing evanescent product almost nobody wants.

And why get in bed with this MTV guy anyway.  Shouldn’t he be held responsible for the raping and pillaging, the decline of THAT outlet?  So he produced "Diary", that was a high water mark, yup that’s what kids say on the playground, did you see last night’s DIARY?  Lowest common denominator programming made for quick bucks.  God, couldn’t Warner get in bed with some YouTube star, somebody on the cutting edge, someone who might wow us who would also be CHEAPER and wouldn’t come up with such a bogus name?

And CAA is involved too…  Charles Bludhorn’s Gulf & Western was labeled "Engulf & Devour", now that’s CAA, whose long arm extends to sports, anything where a ticket is sold.  If there’s a buck to be made, CAA is there.  Complain about the new moniker?  No, just send us a check.

And the press release has got quotes from seemingly every executive at Warner Music.  God, it’s positively high school, or Soviet Russia.  Couldn’t TOM WHALLEY have said they should choose a different name?

And it wasn’t only Ahmet.  Talk to Irving.  He’s had to audit Elektra for Eagles royalties too.  That’s what record labels do, they fail to pay royalties.  Oh, they do it in oh-so-many ways.  Not only by outright theft, by cooking the books, but by contract misinterpretation.  As for artist leverage?  God, the clock on your career starts ticking the moment you have your first hit.  Buck the system and you’re Curt Flood, maybe doing good for everybody else, but you end up fucked.

The brazenness, the irresponsibility in naming this new entity, is absolutely staggering.  It demonstrates where the heart of Warner’s executives truly is.  The day before they announced bad quarterly results, missing analyst expectations by double, they put out this self-satisfied press release showing how innovative and cool they are.

Hell, want to be innovative and cool?  Let the brass go to percentage salaries.  Have a good year, make a lot of money.  Perform badly, get nothing.  Steve Jobs gets a $1 salary, that sounds about right for those running Warner.  Or don’t they have confidence in themselves, don’t they think they can turn the company around and make a fortune on their stock and potential options?

That’s the real den of thieves, the guys running Warner Music.

New “Den of Thieves” Unit Teams Veteran MTV Series Creator and Executive Producer of 2007 MTV Video Music Awards With Seasoned Music Executive

By: bob | 2007/05/08 | Music Business | Trackback | Comments [RSS 2.0]

8 Responses to Den Of Thieves »»


Comments

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  1. Al Kooper
    Comment by Al Kooper | 2007/05/09 at 20:02:10

    ARE SONY, EMI AND UMG COMPLAINING THEY’RE NOT GETTING EQUAL RANTS???
    No need to single out Warners.
    It’s horrific everywhere.

    I havent made ANY money on ANYTHING I’ve EVER done including ALL of it. The only people that pay me reasonably well are BMI. They’re like the cavalry saving me from Bush’s Indians.
    If it wasn’t for them, I’d be living under a bridge in Columbus, OH.

    2. comment_type != "trackback" && $comment->comment_type != "pingback" && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content) && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>
  2. Steve Lukather
    Comment by Steve Lukather | 2007/05/09 at 20:02:27

    The title fits! Remember when we all had record deals that gave us $1.40 a record in 1977? Good deal when records cost 6-7 bucks but THEN, when everything went to CD they charged 15-20 bucks and gave NO increase in roylaties but managed to congratulate each other on their amazing windfall of profits! Oh, they said "We are re-tooling, that costs money." Well, almost 30 years after "re-tooling" I didn’t get a fucking dime more. Did any of you ??

    Bunch of fucking cunts all of them! Oh there were the nice A+R and promo guys, this wasnt their fault. Most of them don’t have jobs anymore, or are dead or retired.

    The music BUSINESS. They raped and pillaged all of us older acts and now they are screwing kids for tour money, merch, and publishing and paying dog shit royalties. They get away with it cause EVERYONE wants to be a rock star and all that goes with it. You bitch about why alot of music sucks cause kids dont learn how to fucking PLAY! A year playing guitar and a pro tools rig and boom, instant rock star. Funny shit. What is the shelf life these days? Oh and everyone thinks we should give music away for free. Thats cool as long as EVERYONE in the world works for free cause ya see guys, some of us actually make a living and pay for our lives this way. I agree the model needs to change and there are some good ideas coming but fuck… I got 2 kids and another on the way and I gotta eat like everyone else. I make all my money on the road like you said but hey.. do YOU guys all work for free? I have been playing for 42 YEARS and I still practice everyday, recording , doing sesssions and touring with all kinds of people and Oh, I am so uncool. Is my experience worth nothing??

    But I am not bitter. hahahaha
    luke

    3. comment_type != "trackback" && $comment->comment_type != "pingback" && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content) && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>
  3. Daniel Catullo
    Comment by Daniel Catullo | 2007/05/09 at 20:02:46

    Bob,

    Thanks for taking notice on what Warner is doing. I am President of Coming Home Studios, the music DVD production and distribution company. We have had over 34 Top 10’s in Billboard and have won many major awards over the past 7 years. We are very successful in the music DVD world and take a lot of pride in what we do. This is a business that is finally getting due respect and sales have more than tripled in the past 3 years of music DVD product. We provide a great service for acts and labels and quite frankly, I see no need for any label to even venture into this world. A TV special or a music DVD can provide an extraordinary revenue stream and be a great promotional tool for the artist and for the label, provided they let an outside company produce, finance and distribute it. From my experience, a Major can not be as effective in the music DVD world. For starters, music DVD’s need to generate revenue on a global scale to make sense, especially when you are talking about a substantial budget of $1 million or more (which any act worth their weight will need). The Majors have built a royalty system where money is held as long as possible and the home label who signed the act, will not see most of the International revenue for sometime. I don’t know of too many companies that can justify a seven-figure investment on their books for so long without seeing real revenue against it.

    With the independents such as my Company, we have direct relationships with major television networks, digital providers, etc who will all PAY for our content. For many years, record labels produced long-form music video content for promotional purposes and gave the footage away to networks in exchange for the airtime. Networks were not born yesterday and they have a real problem with all of a sudden paying labels for this content now, especially after such a long history of getting this for free. However, with the independent producers, networks have always paid and will continue to do so. They know that this content is our bread and butter and we need to get a license fee to make money. We don’t benefit from album sales so the video content is our only source of revenue.

    When I started Coming Home almost 7 years ago, the music DVD business was almost non-existent. If I sold 30,000 copies of a DVD, we would throw a party. Today, if we sell less than 100,000 copies, heads roll. It has grown so much and long before this part of the industry was on any Major label’s radar, we were thriving at producing high-quality content and generating substantial revenues for labels and artists. This has not been easy and it has been one long learning curve to fully understand this part of the market and really learn how to not only produce a quality video, but to effectively market this product to the fan base of the artist. Trust me, I have a Masters Degree from the "School of Hard Knocks" and have spent (and sometimes lost) millions of dollars trying to perfect and master this area of the industry. I am not portraying myself as the "God" of this part of the business, but I will take a position that I probably know more than anybody out there about this part of the industry. For any Major to think that it will be an easy transition to jump into this world and generate substantial revenues is a pipe dream. Marketing Music DVD’s really make no sense and is always a crap shoot. For example, in 2003 two projects that we produced were Usher and Rush. Usher went on to sell a little over 100,000 units. Rush has sold over 600,000 units. At the time, Usher was a multi-platinum artist was a huge hit at radio. Rush had no hit at radio and their album "Vapor Trails" only sold around 200,000 units. There is no rhyme or reason to this part of the business and to be successful you need to fully understand the artist’s fan base. It is very different than selling records- trust me. Whenever we work with a label and discuss our marketing plan for one of their artists, they usually disagree with us and think we are out of our minds. Maybe so, but this part of the world is designed and suited best for independents who can "think outside of the box" and really develop a plan that is best fits the artist’s fan base. Majors, in particular have a history of following a "formula" when they release records. There is no such thing as a "formula" for success with a Music DVD. I am sure that anyone who decides to venture into this world will find this out the hard way, just like we did.

    While the Major’s were focusing on Napster and illegal downloading in 1999 and 2000, there were a bunch of us educating ourselves on the Music DVD business and perfecting our business model. Bottom line- the independents are more familiar with this part of the business. In a world where labels need to find ways to not only cut costs, but generate new revenues, I am miffed as to why a Company such as Warner sees a need to venture into this area. There are a lot of options out there for them to partner with a Company such as ours or any of the other independents out there who really understand this world. Building a division inside their Company umbrella that will cost millions to launch seems unnecessary, especially considering the fact that they have other options available to them. For example. we not only produce all of our projects, we fund them. We also distribute our product through the strongest video distributors in the world. These distributors mostly focus on Music DVD, rather than Front-line record sales.

    Why would anyone want to invest $500k-$1 million to produce a high-quality Music DVD and then spend $200k+ to market it when they can have someone else do it for them? A Home Run on Music DVD is 150,000 units. Sometimes you can get a Grand Slam of more than 300,000, but those releases are few and far between. I doubt the larger companies can justify their monster overheads by selling 150,000 units of each release. They should concentrate on stopping the bleeding and exploring options to "use other people’s money" to achieve their goals at becoming successful in other areas. Most Majors are sitting on a treasure chest of valuable catalog material. In the new world of digital it seems to make sense to me that rather than try to learn a new business and invest millions, why don’t they try something that will cost them nothing- exploit the stuff collecting dust that they already own? Or- how about spending some time and money on developing the artists on their label that need some guidance and support?

    With one of my standard deals, we fund the entire project and pay the Artist and the label a 50% royalty. That royalty on my box sets calculates to around $5.00 per unit to the artist/label. If they split this royalty, they each see $2.50 per unit without putting one dime into the project. Why on earth would they want to invest when they can get a better product and receive $2.50+ per unit without putting up one penny? We spend more money than anybody producing this stuff because this is our backbone. In addition, we work hand-in-hand with the label to cross market with the Artist’s latest release, thus increasing their record sales substantially. The labels win. The Artist wins. We win. Everybody is happy. Producing these projects is sometimes not only costly, but time consuming. Our average production lasts 6 months and is around $1 million. We work with the Artist very closely and become "partners". We give them creative control. I doubt that an Artist will see their label as a "partner". Let’s face it, in most Artist’s eyes, the label is the bad guy. I didn’t make that happen, it just did after many years of Artists not feeling support and not getting paid. Bringing in a neutral 3rd party who specializes in this world who can make both parties happy seems to me to be the smart move here. They do it for short-form videos, why wouldn’t they do the same for long-form? People should concentrate on what they do best. Labels fund and market music product. Companies like mine produce, fund and market video content. If they start producing videos now, what’s next- playing drums and singing for their acts?

    I applaud Warner’s vision and decision to start venturing into new areas. At least one label head is trying to do something for the future. However, they should have looked into what Sony went through with their Automatic Productions division and how much money Sony spent to keep it alive before deciding to do this. Or, they should have consulted with someone who has first hand experience in actually running a video company and distributing videos before they took this route. This part of the business does not fit well with a Multi-National Company. "Creative" people don’t mingle well with "Suits". Trying to merge these two groups together is a recipe for disaster.

    The bottom line is that there are so many options out there for labels to get this content made for no cost to them. They should use these other sources to help sell their music. Rather than try to go into areas that aren’t their expertise, they should lean on people who can give them what they need without writing checks. Jesse Ignjatovic is a highly respected Producer and has a great history of creating series programming. However, his best shows were produced in a neutral and creative environment at MTV, not at a label. With that being said, I am sure that has his work cut out for him in the coming months. I personally do not know too many Artists that would let their label produce their record, so why on Earth would they let them produce their DVD or TV series?

    Just my two cents

    DC

    Daniel E. Catullo III-President
    Coming Home Studios
    http://www.cominghomestudios.com
    http://www.cementshoesrecords.com
    http://www.spiralrecording.com

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  4. Swindleeeee!!!!! › Sympathy for the labels, part 1
    Pingback by Swindleeeee!!!!! › Sympathy for the labels, part 1 | 2007/05/11 at 03:37:04

    […] h artists and customers. But although the major labels indeed may be a den of thieves (and not afraid to say so), indie labels don’t deserve to be lumped i […]

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  5. Peter Noone
    Comment by Peter Noone | 2007/05/14 at 16:10:14

    Hello bob,

    Wonder if anyone ever even got a royalty statement from my record company?
    We never ever got one. (Herman’s Hermits).
    Apparently one was mailed in 1967 but it still hasn’t arrived.
    I bet we sold a few records once upon a time. Maybe you bought one thinking that one of the Hermits or Herman himself would get a nickel or something?
    I just saw someone mention $1.40. That is more than we got for ALL our combined sales.
    We all made records because we wanted to make records. Who knew that there were people waiting to steal all our work and buy houses and give parties for people we would never meet?
    I am proud to say I never made a record for money. That’s the way it was back then.
    —
    Peter Noone
    Herman
    http://peternoone.com
    http://www.myspace.com/hermanshermitspeternoone
    http://hermanshermits.com

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  6. Val Garay
    Comment by Val Garay | 2007/05/14 at 16:10:44

    In Response to Luke!
    I remember when the Cunts at Capitol sent me paperwork asking for 1/2 royalties for the intro of CD’s into the market place for the Motels records that I slaved over for a year each time I did one. Must have been 82 or 83! I also remember them saying it would only be a year or two….That was 1982 or 1983!
    What the fuck happened to the year or two!
    All the lawyers were in on it as well…..Even the the ones on our side.
    Val Garay

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  7. Steve popovich
    Comment by Steve popovich | 2007/05/15 at 20:10:19

    Bob……. why don’t you print more of these ……….where is congress
    on this one ?????? check my blog for the stories
    http://www.oneamericanagainstsonymusic.com …….bean counters want you to die or go broke …….so they then rob your kids grandkids……….i always wondered why the group of beancounters at cbs in the day didnt ever smile never loving an artist or their music…….never went to gigs how fucking naïve I was trusting these graverobbers!!!!!!!.its now been two years since my unanimous jury verdict of course sony wants me to die or go broke so they can claim total ownership on 40 million sales and pay nobody ……is this why our babies are dying in the desert fighting for freedom???????? freedom for enron worldcom sonybmg(german/japanese) owned to continue to rob me frank yankovic (and thousands of others) who sold over 30 million albums and have the balls to charge his account$19,000 for mastering????? 10 years after his death???…then carry the bible go to mass, service, synagogue and think theyre forgiven????? His 75 year old widow doesn’t know who to question……frank was in the battle of the bulge and was frostbitten near amputation……..we won the war??????

    Steve popovich……….ps…….i have an idea why doesn’t simon cowell
    and now ric rubin use their new found power at sony/bmg to have a board named to review the mission of the sony/bmg accounting department……..sir howard stringer was in nam he might sadly get it while hes still employed

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  8. Sympathy for the labels, part 1 « Frank Hecker
    Pingback by Sympathy for the labels, part 1 « Frank Hecker | 2009/10/10 at 05:21:42

    […] screw both artists and customers. But although the major labels indeed may be a den of thieves (and not afraid to say so), indie labels don’t deserve to be lumped in indiscriminately with them. And in any case […]


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Trackbacks & Pingbacks »»

  1. Al Kooper
    Comment by Al Kooper | 2007/05/09 at 20:02:10

    ARE SONY, EMI AND UMG COMPLAINING THEY’RE NOT GETTING EQUAL RANTS???
    No need to single out Warners.
    It’s horrific everywhere.

    I havent made ANY money on ANYTHING I’ve EVER done including ALL of it. The only people that pay me reasonably well are BMI. They’re like the cavalry saving me from Bush’s Indians.
    If it wasn’t for them, I’d be living under a bridge in Columbus, OH.

    2. comment_type == "trackback" || $comment->comment_type == "pingback" || ereg("", $comment->comment_content) || ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>

    Trackbacks & Pingbacks »»

    1. Steve Lukather
      Comment by Steve Lukather | 2007/05/09 at 20:02:27

      The title fits! Remember when we all had record deals that gave us $1.40 a record in 1977? Good deal when records cost 6-7 bucks but THEN, when everything went to CD they charged 15-20 bucks and gave NO increase in roylaties but managed to congratulate each other on their amazing windfall of profits! Oh, they said "We are re-tooling, that costs money." Well, almost 30 years after "re-tooling" I didn’t get a fucking dime more. Did any of you ??

      Bunch of fucking cunts all of them! Oh there were the nice A+R and promo guys, this wasnt their fault. Most of them don’t have jobs anymore, or are dead or retired.

      The music BUSINESS. They raped and pillaged all of us older acts and now they are screwing kids for tour money, merch, and publishing and paying dog shit royalties. They get away with it cause EVERYONE wants to be a rock star and all that goes with it. You bitch about why alot of music sucks cause kids dont learn how to fucking PLAY! A year playing guitar and a pro tools rig and boom, instant rock star. Funny shit. What is the shelf life these days? Oh and everyone thinks we should give music away for free. Thats cool as long as EVERYONE in the world works for free cause ya see guys, some of us actually make a living and pay for our lives this way. I agree the model needs to change and there are some good ideas coming but fuck… I got 2 kids and another on the way and I gotta eat like everyone else. I make all my money on the road like you said but hey.. do YOU guys all work for free? I have been playing for 42 YEARS and I still practice everyday, recording , doing sesssions and touring with all kinds of people and Oh, I am so uncool. Is my experience worth nothing??

      But I am not bitter. hahahaha
      luke

      2. comment_type == "trackback" || $comment->comment_type == "pingback" || ereg("", $comment->comment_content) || ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>

      Trackbacks & Pingbacks »»

      1. Daniel Catullo
        Comment by Daniel Catullo | 2007/05/09 at 20:02:46

        Bob,

        Thanks for taking notice on what Warner is doing. I am President of Coming Home Studios, the music DVD production and distribution company. We have had over 34 Top 10’s in Billboard and have won many major awards over the past 7 years. We are very successful in the music DVD world and take a lot of pride in what we do. This is a business that is finally getting due respect and sales have more than tripled in the past 3 years of music DVD product. We provide a great service for acts and labels and quite frankly, I see no need for any label to even venture into this world. A TV special or a music DVD can provide an extraordinary revenue stream and be a great promotional tool for the artist and for the label, provided they let an outside company produce, finance and distribute it. From my experience, a Major can not be as effective in the music DVD world. For starters, music DVD’s need to generate revenue on a global scale to make sense, especially when you are talking about a substantial budget of $1 million or more (which any act worth their weight will need). The Majors have built a royalty system where money is held as long as possible and the home label who signed the act, will not see most of the International revenue for sometime. I don’t know of too many companies that can justify a seven-figure investment on their books for so long without seeing real revenue against it.

        With the independents such as my Company, we have direct relationships with major television networks, digital providers, etc who will all PAY for our content. For many years, record labels produced long-form music video content for promotional purposes and gave the footage away to networks in exchange for the airtime. Networks were not born yesterday and they have a real problem with all of a sudden paying labels for this content now, especially after such a long history of getting this for free. However, with the independent producers, networks have always paid and will continue to do so. They know that this content is our bread and butter and we need to get a license fee to make money. We don’t benefit from album sales so the video content is our only source of revenue.

        When I started Coming Home almost 7 years ago, the music DVD business was almost non-existent. If I sold 30,000 copies of a DVD, we would throw a party. Today, if we sell less than 100,000 copies, heads roll. It has grown so much and long before this part of the industry was on any Major label’s radar, we were thriving at producing high-quality content and generating substantial revenues for labels and artists. This has not been easy and it has been one long learning curve to fully understand this part of the market and really learn how to not only produce a quality video, but to effectively market this product to the fan base of the artist. Trust me, I have a Masters Degree from the "School of Hard Knocks" and have spent (and sometimes lost) millions of dollars trying to perfect and master this area of the industry. I am not portraying myself as the "God" of this part of the business, but I will take a position that I probably know more than anybody out there about this part of the industry. For any Major to think that it will be an easy transition to jump into this world and generate substantial revenues is a pipe dream. Marketing Music DVD’s really make no sense and is always a crap shoot. For example, in 2003 two projects that we produced were Usher and Rush. Usher went on to sell a little over 100,000 units. Rush has sold over 600,000 units. At the time, Usher was a multi-platinum artist was a huge hit at radio. Rush had no hit at radio and their album "Vapor Trails" only sold around 200,000 units. There is no rhyme or reason to this part of the business and to be successful you need to fully understand the artist’s fan base. It is very different than selling records- trust me. Whenever we work with a label and discuss our marketing plan for one of their artists, they usually disagree with us and think we are out of our minds. Maybe so, but this part of the world is designed and suited best for independents who can "think outside of the box" and really develop a plan that is best fits the artist’s fan base. Majors, in particular have a history of following a "formula" when they release records. There is no such thing as a "formula" for success with a Music DVD. I am sure that anyone who decides to venture into this world will find this out the hard way, just like we did.

        While the Major’s were focusing on Napster and illegal downloading in 1999 and 2000, there were a bunch of us educating ourselves on the Music DVD business and perfecting our business model. Bottom line- the independents are more familiar with this part of the business. In a world where labels need to find ways to not only cut costs, but generate new revenues, I am miffed as to why a Company such as Warner sees a need to venture into this area. There are a lot of options out there for them to partner with a Company such as ours or any of the other independents out there who really understand this world. Building a division inside their Company umbrella that will cost millions to launch seems unnecessary, especially considering the fact that they have other options available to them. For example. we not only produce all of our projects, we fund them. We also distribute our product through the strongest video distributors in the world. These distributors mostly focus on Music DVD, rather than Front-line record sales.

        Why would anyone want to invest $500k-$1 million to produce a high-quality Music DVD and then spend $200k+ to market it when they can have someone else do it for them? A Home Run on Music DVD is 150,000 units. Sometimes you can get a Grand Slam of more than 300,000, but those releases are few and far between. I doubt the larger companies can justify their monster overheads by selling 150,000 units of each release. They should concentrate on stopping the bleeding and exploring options to "use other people’s money" to achieve their goals at becoming successful in other areas. Most Majors are sitting on a treasure chest of valuable catalog material. In the new world of digital it seems to make sense to me that rather than try to learn a new business and invest millions, why don’t they try something that will cost them nothing- exploit the stuff collecting dust that they already own? Or- how about spending some time and money on developing the artists on their label that need some guidance and support?

        With one of my standard deals, we fund the entire project and pay the Artist and the label a 50% royalty. That royalty on my box sets calculates to around $5.00 per unit to the artist/label. If they split this royalty, they each see $2.50 per unit without putting one dime into the project. Why on earth would they want to invest when they can get a better product and receive $2.50+ per unit without putting up one penny? We spend more money than anybody producing this stuff because this is our backbone. In addition, we work hand-in-hand with the label to cross market with the Artist’s latest release, thus increasing their record sales substantially. The labels win. The Artist wins. We win. Everybody is happy. Producing these projects is sometimes not only costly, but time consuming. Our average production lasts 6 months and is around $1 million. We work with the Artist very closely and become "partners". We give them creative control. I doubt that an Artist will see their label as a "partner". Let’s face it, in most Artist’s eyes, the label is the bad guy. I didn’t make that happen, it just did after many years of Artists not feeling support and not getting paid. Bringing in a neutral 3rd party who specializes in this world who can make both parties happy seems to me to be the smart move here. They do it for short-form videos, why wouldn’t they do the same for long-form? People should concentrate on what they do best. Labels fund and market music product. Companies like mine produce, fund and market video content. If they start producing videos now, what’s next- playing drums and singing for their acts?

        I applaud Warner’s vision and decision to start venturing into new areas. At least one label head is trying to do something for the future. However, they should have looked into what Sony went through with their Automatic Productions division and how much money Sony spent to keep it alive before deciding to do this. Or, they should have consulted with someone who has first hand experience in actually running a video company and distributing videos before they took this route. This part of the business does not fit well with a Multi-National Company. "Creative" people don’t mingle well with "Suits". Trying to merge these two groups together is a recipe for disaster.

        The bottom line is that there are so many options out there for labels to get this content made for no cost to them. They should use these other sources to help sell their music. Rather than try to go into areas that aren’t their expertise, they should lean on people who can give them what they need without writing checks. Jesse Ignjatovic is a highly respected Producer and has a great history of creating series programming. However, his best shows were produced in a neutral and creative environment at MTV, not at a label. With that being said, I am sure that has his work cut out for him in the coming months. I personally do not know too many Artists that would let their label produce their record, so why on Earth would they let them produce their DVD or TV series?

        Just my two cents

        DC

        Daniel E. Catullo III-President
        Coming Home Studios
        http://www.cominghomestudios.com
        http://www.cementshoesrecords.com
        http://www.spiralrecording.com

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        1. Swindleeeee!!!!! › Sympathy for the labels, part 1
          Pingback by Swindleeeee!!!!! › Sympathy for the labels, part 1 | 2007/05/11 at 03:37:04

          […] h artists and customers. But although the major labels indeed may be a den of thieves (and not afraid to say so), indie labels don’t deserve to be lumped i […]

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          1. Peter Noone
            Comment by Peter Noone | 2007/05/14 at 16:10:14

            Hello bob,

            Wonder if anyone ever even got a royalty statement from my record company?
            We never ever got one. (Herman’s Hermits).
            Apparently one was mailed in 1967 but it still hasn’t arrived.
            I bet we sold a few records once upon a time. Maybe you bought one thinking that one of the Hermits or Herman himself would get a nickel or something?
            I just saw someone mention $1.40. That is more than we got for ALL our combined sales.
            We all made records because we wanted to make records. Who knew that there were people waiting to steal all our work and buy houses and give parties for people we would never meet?
            I am proud to say I never made a record for money. That’s the way it was back then.
            —
            Peter Noone
            Herman
            http://peternoone.com
            http://www.myspace.com/hermanshermitspeternoone
            http://hermanshermits.com

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            1. Val Garay
              Comment by Val Garay | 2007/05/14 at 16:10:44

              In Response to Luke!
              I remember when the Cunts at Capitol sent me paperwork asking for 1/2 royalties for the intro of CD’s into the market place for the Motels records that I slaved over for a year each time I did one. Must have been 82 or 83! I also remember them saying it would only be a year or two….That was 1982 or 1983!
              What the fuck happened to the year or two!
              All the lawyers were in on it as well…..Even the the ones on our side.
              Val Garay

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              1. Steve popovich
                Comment by Steve popovich | 2007/05/15 at 20:10:19

                Bob……. why don’t you print more of these ……….where is congress
                on this one ?????? check my blog for the stories
                http://www.oneamericanagainstsonymusic.com …….bean counters want you to die or go broke …….so they then rob your kids grandkids……….i always wondered why the group of beancounters at cbs in the day didnt ever smile never loving an artist or their music…….never went to gigs how fucking naïve I was trusting these graverobbers!!!!!!!.its now been two years since my unanimous jury verdict of course sony wants me to die or go broke so they can claim total ownership on 40 million sales and pay nobody ……is this why our babies are dying in the desert fighting for freedom???????? freedom for enron worldcom sonybmg(german/japanese) owned to continue to rob me frank yankovic (and thousands of others) who sold over 30 million albums and have the balls to charge his account$19,000 for mastering????? 10 years after his death???…then carry the bible go to mass, service, synagogue and think theyre forgiven????? His 75 year old widow doesn’t know who to question……frank was in the battle of the bulge and was frostbitten near amputation……..we won the war??????

                Steve popovich……….ps…….i have an idea why doesn’t simon cowell
                and now ric rubin use their new found power at sony/bmg to have a board named to review the mission of the sony/bmg accounting department……..sir howard stringer was in nam he might sadly get it while hes still employed

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                1. Sympathy for the labels, part 1 « Frank Hecker
                  Pingback by Sympathy for the labels, part 1 « Frank Hecker | 2009/10/10 at 05:21:42

                  […] screw both artists and customers. But although the major labels indeed may be a den of thieves (and not afraid to say so), indie labels don’t deserve to be lumped in indiscriminately with them. And in any case […]

                This is a read-only blog. E-mail comments directly to Bob.

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