From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2001 #156 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/joni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Saturday, March 31 2001 Volume 2001 : Number 156 The 'Official' Joni Mitchell Homepage, created by Wally Breese, can be found at http://www.jonimitchell.com. It contains the latest news, a detailed bio, Original Interviews, essays, lyrics and much much more. The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. Information on the 4th "Annual" New England JoniFest: http://www.jmdl.com/jfne2001.cfm The Joni Chat Room: http://www.jmdl.com/chat.cfm ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Recording Stars Challenge Music Labels ["Craig Harris" ] another bday njc ["Kate Bennett" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 22:56:13 -0800 From: "Craig Harris" Subject: Recording Stars Challenge Music Labels Subject: LA Times Article: Recording Stars Challenge Music Labels Los Angeles Times Thursday, March 29, 2001 Recording Stars Challenge Music Labels' Business Practices By CHUCK PHILIPS, Times Staff Writer A showdown is brewing in the music business, pitting some of the world's biggest stars against the conglomerates that employ them. Dozens of major artists are mobilizing to take on the music establishment, demanding better contracts, beefed-up copyright protection and free-agency status. They are exploring formation of a labor union to provide health-care and pension benefits and fighting for new rules on ownership of their creative material. One Los Angeles-based artist coalition is preparing to lobby Congress to look into what some call the unconscionable business practices of the Big Five music companies. Stars from virtually every genre of popular music are stepping forward, including Don Henley, Merle Haggard, Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Sam Moore and Courtney Love. Should these artists prevail, their collective bargaining efforts would radically rewrite the economics of the music business in the same way that unionizing actors and baseball players revolutionized the film and sports industries. And though stars are leading this effort, the fundamental changes they are seeking could have a profound effect on every recording artist. "It's nearly impossible to imagine a music business where recording artists have bargaining clout," said Michael Nathanson, a media analyst at investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. "It would cause the traditional economic model to collapse. The industry as we know it would cease to exist." Singer-songwriter Don Henley, co-founder of the Recording Artists Coalition, which represents dozens of stars, including Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Q-Tip and Peggy Lee, said: "Record companies have been screwing artists for ages. It's time we organize and fight back. We've got our own trade group now. We're going to Washington." Record Labels Say System Makes Sense Although executives representing the five largest record companies declined to comment for this article, privately they maintain that the economic structure of the industry makes sense and is fair to artists. Still, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said lawmakers are interested in examining artist rights issues. "The rights of artists in the contract and bargaining progress with respect to copyrights, health-care coverage and other issues is a discussion that is not only worth having, it is long overdue," Conyers said. The Recording Artists Coalition is considering joining forces with Artists Against Piracy, a Los Angeles-based organization headed by singer-songwriter Noah Stone that represents 90 acts, such as Herbie Hancock, Shelby Lynne, Bon Jovi and the Dixie Chicks. Stone launched Artists Against Piracy to fight for digital copyright protection and is now expanding into other artist rights issues. A third effort is being forged by Love. The rock singer and actress captured the industry's attention last month when she sued to break her contract with Vivendi Universal, the world's largest record conglomerate. She is hoping to use the lawsuit to expose the industry's "corrupt" accounting practices, claiming the labels deduct exorbitant fees for product breakage and promotional giveaways and pay reduced royalty rates for albums sold overseas and in record clubs. Since filing her lawsuit, Love has received hundreds of e-mails from prominent artists, including Prince, in support of her petition calling for a labor union to help music acts secure pension plans and health benefits packages and regain ownership of their recordings. Existing unions representing musicians largely focus on session singers and the live-performing end of the business and not on recording artists. Recording musicians receive few benefits. A union for recording artists could force changes to the controversial accounting methods under which companies "underpay artists as an institutional practice," said attorney John Branca, who represents such acts as TLC and Michael Jackson. "With strike leverage, artists could attain free agency." Angry artists began to organize after discovering that lobbyists for the Recording Industry Assn. of America, the political arm of the nation's five largest music conglomerates, had persuaded lawmakers to quietly insert an amendment in a bill that would prevent music acts from regaining control of their recordings in the future. Recording Artists Coalition members and other artists protested and successfully lobbied Congress to repeal the amendment. The recording industry group's chief, Hilary Rosen, declined to comment. The Recording Artists Coalition, which is scheduled to appear Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about digital copyright issues, is building a $5-million fund through benefit concerts for the purpose of lobbying lawmakers on artist-rights issues. But that money, Henley acknowledges, is just a sliver of the $40 million amassed last year by the recording industry, some of which was used to push its agenda on Capitol Hill. Privately, music executives scoffed at the criticisms raised by Love, Henley and others. They said artists voluntarily sign "industry-standard" recording agreements and are paid fair royalties based on "time-honored industry accounting practices." The business is stacked in favor of the labels, executives said, because the companies sink enormous amounts of capital into developing and marketing new artists, few of whom ever make money. Without long-term contracts, music chiefs said, companies would have no incentive to underwrite the risky enterprise in which only 5% of the 3,000 albums released last year turned a profit. Because so many records fail, the standard contract is structured to allow labels to extract much of their earnings from the handful of blockbuster albums each year. And what complaining artists fail to consider, executives said, is that the cost of doing business is skyrocketing. According to label chiefs, the price of signing talent, producing videos, promoting records and inking joint ventures has nearly tripled in recent years, squeezing profit margins in a business already threatened by encroaching Internet piracy. And the contract, executives said, is not set in stone. Labels typically renegotiate a new deal immediately after an artist scores a hit, offering huge advances and higher royalty rates in exchange for additional albums. If the act's follow-up album tanks, executives said, the company eats the loss, which often runs into millions of dollars. Many big stars with successful track records said they are happy with their companies. Acts at the top of the food chain--such as U2, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan--have been able to renegotiate lucrative pacts with eight-figure advances that allow them to reclaim ownership of their recordings and publishing rights. Label chiefs characterize the complaints as sour grapes from a collection of aging, over-the-hill acts whose recent albums have failed in the marketplace. Industry analysts, however, said the unionizing effort could significantly alter entry-level contract terms for young music groups. "Look, I don't have any love for record company practices, but costs are so high now that most of these public conglomerates are struggling just to make their quarterly numbers," said attorney Don Passman, who represents R.E.M. and Janet Jackson. "The fact is companies these days often have to invest $750,000 to $1 million per act before they learn whether they're going to earn a penny in profit. And it's no secret how few artists actually succeed." Love has no sympathy for those who run the record companies. "How do the guys running these labels get away with a 95% failure rate that would be totally unacceptable in any other type of business?" Love asked. "I'll tell you how: because they pay artists only a tiny fraction of the billions that their music generates. That's what allows so many overpaid executives to be so incredibly sloppy in running these public companies." It's a business model rooted in what Love calls an illegal industry-standard contract that requires artists to underwrite their own recordings, videos, advertising, marketing, promotion and tour support before they are paid royalties. The contract, she said, typically keeps artists tied to a single label their entire career, while preventing them from ever owning their own music. Love compares the plight of recording artists to that of movie stars before the founding of the Screen Actors Guild and baseball players before they launched their union. Without collective bargaining clout, Love said, artists will never obtain health benefits or pension plans or be able to stand up in any way to the Big Five music conglomerates, which she said work together as an unlawful trust restraining trade and competition. Many of Love's colleagues agree. Interests of Artists Are Unprotected, Some Say They complain that while studio singers are represented by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or AFTRA, and instrumentalists are represented by the American Federation of Musicians, there has never been an organization looking out exclusively for the interests of recording artists. Recording artists said those unions are eager to collect dues from recording acts who perform on TV or in clubs, but reluctant to provide health benefits or pension funds as spelled out under their charters. "Do we need a real union to fight for our rights?" asked singer Sam Moore of the legendary 1960s soul duo Sam & Dave. "Damn right we do!" The 65-year-old Moore, whose recordings have generated tens of millions of dollars in the last four decades, has been locked in a lengthy legal battle with AFTRA's pension arm trying to recover unpaid pension funds. The entertainer, who filed his AFTRA suit along with the heirs of Curtis Mayfield and half a dozen other soul stars, said he still must tour regularly to make ends meet. Moore is luckier than most. Soul singer Jackie Wilson was buried without a headstone. Motown stars Mary Wells and Florence Ballard died welfare recipients. Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Jimmy Reed and Howlin' Wolf lived in destitute conditions, abandoned by the same industry that now sings their praises. "The ones making the music aren't the ones making the money," said 63-year-old country legend Merle Haggard in an interview from his touring bus. "Let me tell you how it works: The artist pays for everything and ends up with nothing. The big boys with the cigars, they get it all." Haggard has scored dozens of hits on the country chart since he broke into the business 40 years ago, generating millions of dollars for the industry. Haggard said several labels have swindled him since he signed his original deal in 1962--a contract under which he collected just a nickel per album after the company extracted advances for studio, promotion and touring costs. "Not only do they cheat you on the way in," Haggard said, "they rob you on the way out. Acclaimed songwriter Tom Waits said his first contract paid him only about 15 cents per copy sold in the United States. "I've spent more time in court than I have in the studio and more money on lawyers than I have on engineers. So what does that tell you?" Waits asked. "This thing is very unfair, and the companies know it. You're very young when they push this contract in front of you. It's like you're some 15-year-old girl, and everybody's saying, 'Baby, you're so beautiful. Please, come join our modeling agency.' All you see is runways and makeup and sequins and hair spray. You have no idea what you're signing." The long-term contract that most artists are asked to sign requires them to deliver at least seven albums. Considering that companies typically insist on a two-year gap between album releases, the standard deal usually commits an artist to a label for at least 14 years--the span of most music careers. Henley, Love and other artists intend to lobby Congress members to pass legislation making California's "seven-year" statute, under which entertainers cannot be tied to any company for more than seven years, a federal law. The California statute was instituted 50 years ago after a legal battle by film star Olivia de Havilland to free actors from long-term studio deals but has never been tested in the music business. The law would, in essence, introduce free agency into the music business. To avoid testing the law, record companies have typically rewritten the contracts of disgruntled stars, offering concessions. Earlier showdowns about the statute--including cases by Henley and Tom Petty--were averted when the artists were persuaded to settle out of court for multimillion-dollar advances. Petty, one of the first stars to tangle with the industry during his late-1970s legal battle with MCA Records, supports expanding the seven-year statute nationwide and endorses the concept of forming a recording artist trade group or union. He cautions, however, that implementing the plan will be not be easy. "It's really hard to get artists to do anything together for the collective good," Petty said. "When I was out there fighting my battle, it was very lonely. . . . "The fact is once you decide to try to set a precedent, you're no longer just fighting the company that hired you. You're fighting all of them. This kind of thing could end up costing some very powerful people a whole bunch of money. And these aren't the kind of guys who just roll over. . . . They keep an entire legal team on staff and attorneys on retainer just to scare folks like us off. . . . It's going to be a long, hard fight ahead." * * * Courtney Love's lawsuit and letter to recording artists can be read at http://www.latimes.com/recordletter. * * * Musicians Mobilize Dozens of major music recording artists are organizing to lobby Congress to take on the music establishment--demanding better contracts, beefed-up copyright protection and free-agency status. Here's what some of the more prominent musicians are saying about the need to organize: * * * MERLE HAGGARD "Fans don't realize it, but when they purchase a CD, the artist gets almost none of the money. The company makes us pay for the session and the promotion and the advertising, and they keep the record when we're done. They own it forever. That's what they call a 'fair' industry- standard contract." * * * DON HENLEY "The irony in all this is that artists have been able to organize for every other cause under the sun. We can save the trees. We can save the whales. We can save the homeless. But until now, we couldn't get together to save ourselves." * * * COURTNEY LOVE "My daughter once visited the home of a major label president with some of her little friends, and upon returning she asked me, 'Mommy, why does Mr. So-and-So live in such a giant, fancy house and we live here?' I told her, 'Baby, it's like this: Your daddy and I and a bunch of other artists made Mr. So-and-So a big, beautiful cake, and every now and then he throws us a crumb.' " * * * TOM WAITS "The companies own us. We're like pets. But you know what? Even pets have rights these days. So why not us? Everyone else is organized--actors, cinematographers, steelworkers, truck drivers. With a union, we'd have some leverage to fight back." * * * TOM PETTY "When they put that contract in front of you, you're just a young kid and all you're thinking is, 'I want a new amp. I wanna make a record.' They say, 'Just sign here and step into the studio. We'll give you all the amps you can handle.' " * * * SAM MOORE "Do we need a real union to fight for our rights? Damn right we do! With a union, we could clean up the industry. We could force the companies to stop cheating us. We could force them to raise our royalty rates and make contributions for us to health-care and pension funds." Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 22:57:47 -0800 From: Richard Goldman Subject: Re: Bette [NJC] It really has been cancelled here in the states. Poor ratings. They stunk, the ratings. So....even though several more episodes have been taped, they will remain 'in the can', since the show has already been pulled from the air. And replaced with a sitcom "Some of My Best Friends", which is a spinoff from the gay indie flick "Kiss Me Guido" a couple of years ago. It's cute. But Bette is a Diva! and most of her shows were indeed hysterical, especially when she parodied herself. I'll miss her, but at least she can say, 'she did it her way!': Twisted! and Divine! Richard in San Francisco. - ------- >Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 22:20:34 +0100 >From: "Garret" >Subject: Bette > >I was just watching Bette, Bette Midler's sitcom, and she decided that she >needed a a scandal, from which she could return with a comeback. well, as >she's driving home from the hospital she starts singing Twisted!!! i know >that Bob had gotten a version of Bette doing this from a video. i guess >that was a live version, but here, in the show, is a recorded version!! she >realy did it justice, managed to keep both the pace and humour. >someone commented recently that this show was cancelled in the states >already, and said that it wasn't funny. but to be honest it's the funniest >show i've seen in ages!!! >it's been on for about two months here, and i really look forward to >watching it on friday nights! jsut ask Chris Marshall!!!!! >GARRET >NP- Down to You ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 23:12:59 -0800 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: another bday njc belated happy birthday evian! ******************************************** Kate Bennett www.katebennett.com sponsored by Polysonics www.polysonics.com Discover the Indies at Taylor Guitars: http://www.taylorguitars.com/artists/awp/indies/bennett.html ******************************************** ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2001 #156 ***************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe ------- Siquomb, isn't she?