interesting comments about big business, music industry and induction into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
THAT STEVE MILLER INSULT AT THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME EXPLAINED
Steve Miller has defended his comments after his induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to Billboard last week. At the ceremony where he was inducted, Miller slammed the experience of the ceremony, the lack of female inductees and respect for artists, as well as the music industry in general. The Black Keys who inducted Miller have responded to say they regret inducting the "unpleasant" Miller. Now, speaking in a lengthy interview with Billboard, Miller has explained in detail his unhappiness with the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and the music industry in particular.
"You have to speak truth to these people. The whole experience is not like what you would think being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame would be. You'd think it would be a wonderful experience. The whole process feels like you're dealing with a company that wants you to give them everything and they're going to go make all this money and they're going to do everything with it, and you have no input into it, no say about any of it, take it or leave it. Probably what the general public thinks and what it really is are two different things.
"We all want to support the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the public takes it seriously. But they've turned it into a really cold, hard-ass deal. It needs to be transparent, and it needs to be fair."
Miller also elaborated on the "gangster and crooks" comments after his induction. In a damning reflection on the music industry, he said: "As everybody that has had a taste of the record business knows, they are gangsters and crooks. My record companies have grossed over $1 billion from my work, and I've spent 50 years auditing them to force them to pay me what my contracts call for. I caught them illegally selling hundreds of thousands of my records in markets worldwide. They've broken their contracts; they've broken their word. They have built-in theft in all their accounting."
If a popular artist has been badly treated, think how their sexegenarian music fans have been treated. ---------- The Iceman
I respect the heck out Steve Miller for putting the cards on the table. It is completely politically incorrect and I can see a younger band like the Black Keys distancing themselves from him. The music business is about as ugly a business as I have ever been involved and is right up there with public schools in this country. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Steve Miller is correct RnR Hall really has no reason to exist
Rock and Roll was supposed to be ephemeral rebellious music.
Lots of the acts have nothing to do with rock and roll. It should really just be called a pop music hall of fame No Link Wray, Johnny Burnette Trio, Dick Dale, Zombies , War??
But NWA??Donna Summer , Abba- just dopey choices
Tom Waits? Charlie Christian?? great artists but not remotely Rock
F them
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Apr 22, 2016 3:29 PM
Walter, I disagree that that's politically incorrect. It's closer to speaking truth to power. It might be a poor career move (particularly for newer acts) but the whole idea of political correctness has more to do with punching up rather than punching down. It's always fine, I think, to go after the people with more power than you. When you go after the people with less power than you is when you start running afoul of political correctness.
I'm glad you started this thread, Iceman. It's rare when the particular people in this thread agree on something, but I think we're all in agreement here. I watched the Miller press conference clip and I agree with what he said.
My experience with record companies has been almost universally atrocious--at least when it comes to the question of getting paid.
Flying Fish, with the late Bruce Kaplan in charge, was pretty good with Satan and Adam. They put out our first two records; paid us a fair advance; and gave us what appear to be accurate accountings for the next few years. I don't think we made back the advance, but we might have.
The third Satan and Adam album was put out by an indy label. The owner made a great record, and let me co-produce. Then he licensed it to Rounder, collected the money on unit sales for the next 20 years, and, although he knew how to get in touch with me, never bothered to send me an accounting or pay me and Sterling what he owed us. I finally got pissed off, which got HIM pissed off. He paid me what he owed me and told me to go away. A couple of years ago we got back in touch and became friends again, and now we ARE, in fact friends. (That's one reason I'm not naming him or his label.) But still: that was my experience.
Five or six years ago, I realized that Rounder themselves, which had purchased the Flying Fish catalogue, had never paid us a cent of royalties on unit sales FOR NINETEEN YEARS. I contacted them. In this case, they had a new young guy in charge of the royalty department and he genuinely wanted to make things right. He worked hard and conscientiously to put our accounts in order and, miracle of miracles, Sterling and I were paid all the back royalties we were due: a couple of thousand bucks each, money that Rounder had been holding onto and collecting interest on for all those years. I now get regular, modest royalty payments from Concord, the company that bought out the Rounder catalogue. But again: I had to make a stink. Nobody was volunteering to pay me what they were contractually obligated to pay me.
Finally, there is the saga of my "indy label" licensing deal with a UK company. Again: I won't mention the label--although it's not hard to google it out--or the label owner. Let's just say that he seduced me with a heavy sell and we signed a three-year licensing deal. He was a real record guy: infinite charm and an infinite ability to avoid paying me what he owed me. After the record had been out for a year, I'd still had no accountings or, obviously, royalty payments. I began asking for the former and, if payments were due, the latter. I kept asking, nicely. He kept making excuses: he was ill, his accountant was away on vacation. I kept asking nicely. Nine months after I first asked, I got royally pissed off at his inaction and told him he was in breach of contract and he finally sent me royalty statements which revealed that the record had gone into the black, modestly, nine months earlier. The royalty statement requested that I "invoice for payment." Think about that. For nine months he'd refused to give me statements that, if I'd had them, would have, BY HIS RULES, led me to invoice him for royalties due. But he'd refused to send me the statements--thereby holding onto the money he owed me and making interest on it. You can't invoice somebody for royalties unless they tell you how much to invoice them for.
I made such an extended stink over the following months that he finally agreed to terminate the licensing arrangement after two years rather than three.
Now KICK AND STOMP is back on CD Baby, I'm getting regular and exact royalty payments, and nobody is f--king with me.
CD Baby is the best friend this musician has ever had. Accurate, honest, timely accountings, every month. And I don't have to make threats. Unfortunately, experience teaches me that threats are the only way to get action out of most record company people.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Apr 23, 2016 6:38 AM
This will certainly not file under PC: Prince at the 2004 induction for George Harrison, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. I've seen a lot of links to that performance referencing how he "blew away" everyone etc. First, Prince was unquestionably an iconic artist and his performance on the song demonstrated serious talent and showmanship, but I say it was also disrespectful and narcissistic. There, I said it. *Wow, the link to the solo is now the top feed on CNN.
Last Edited by Littoral on Apr 23, 2016 6:43 AM
Very interesting topic. I expected that 70's artists such as Miller would have had the best chance of anyone in the history of recorded music to have made good money. He probably did too, but obviously the record companies took the lion's share. And thanks, Adam, for sharing your experiences. It's a crazy business to try to make a living at, that is for sure. ----------
Too many people tend to think that if an album is selling gold or platinum, the artist automatically is making millions, but the truth, cold, hard, sad and brutal is better than 95% of the time it is not one bit true at all. Patti Smith had a platinum selling album that she wound up making exactly $3000 from grand total. On top of that, the label owns the rights to the music and Prince, who just passed away was one of the first to fight against this business model (tho a few decades earlier, Ray Charles was at least able to own his own masters and 99% of artists signed to a record deal don't own a damned bit of their masters). Just to get signed, most artists are forced to sign some really horrible deals just to get their name out there and right off the bat, record companies take off recording and marketing expenses right off the top of your royalties.
What SM says isn't an insult, but the cold, hard, brutal truth. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I wonder if Tennessee Ford went deeper in debt from recording 16 Tons. From what I read here, the song could be as much about the music industry as about the coal industry. The tactics seem similar.
