Posted on 12/19/2001 4:51:59 PM PST by The Drowning Witch
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Elton John, No Doubt and the Eagles are among a group of musicians who will perform at five benefit concerts the night before the Grammy Awards telecast to raise money for a legislative fight against the record industry.
The Recording Artists Coalition, a trade group representing more than 100 entertainers, has booked several sites in Los Angeles for the Feb. 26 concerts.
Money raised from the concerts will help fund an offensive against the major record labels for allegedly denying musicians a share of royalty earnings.
Courtney Love and the Dixie Chicks are embroiled in their own legal battle accusing their labels of exploiting them financially and locking them into long-term contracts.
"It's about time for artists to take control of their work and how it is presented to our fans," said Dexter Holland of the band Offspring, which will perform as part of the effort.
Record companies deny the allegations and say musicians are receiving a fair share of revenue and royalties The five shows will feature different genres - pop, alternative, rhythm and blues, hard rock and country music.
Other artists confirmed for the performances include Billy Joel, Stevie Nicks, Weezer, Dixie Chicks and Ozzy Osbourne. More artists were expected to join the list in coming weeks.
Grammy chief Michael Greene said he is supportive of the concerts.
"I would absolutely not support this if I thought it was just an in-your-face thing against the labels," Greene said.
The tentative lineup is Billy Joel, Sheryl Crow, the Eagles, Dixie Chicks and Stevie Nicks at the Forum in Inglewood; Offspring, No Doubt, Weezer at the Long Beach Convention Center; Ozzy Osborne at the Los Angeles Sports Arena; rhythm and blues acts to be announced at the Universal Amphitheatre; and country artists at an undetermined fifth site.
Witch
If the RIAA had drafted Napster instead of killing it the artists and the RIAA would be collecting megabucks.
Unfortunately, the record companies were so paniced by the potential loss of revenues, they never stopped to think of the dividends if they had made a deal way back then.
Guess they were still freaked by the blank tape tax/PMRC fiasco in the mid eighties...
(Unfortunately, I doubt it though....)
We'll see, and BEST of luck!
Worse still, they seem to operate under the assumption that all the money was theirs' from the beginning...
With some of the advances these record companies are throwing around to up and coming artists these days, they are basically trying to fight the inflation of their own short-sighted business practices.
Just like Congress....
I have no sympathy for them.
Nor should you have any sympathy. Intellectual property was meant by the Founders to have limited protection. The extensions of copyright are a travesty of this intention. Now these pukes want to put a Big Brother chip in evry computer. It is entirely right and proper to put your privacy and fair use rights ahead of their ability to continue to rip off both artists and customers.
My point is that the RIAA could have headed just such a discombobulation off at the head off the pass by just dealing from the get-go. By wanting to protect their confiscatory recoupment of royalties practices in regards to advances, they created this problem themselves. The millions of dollars advances basically indenture the artists to the tune of millions of dollars, all against future record sales.
Now while your average artist is by no means a lawyer, the record companies employ hundreds of them. Fair use is one thing, but by failing to negotiate in the beginning, all parties end up the losers...
There just had to be a way for everyone to make some money, and for us to get music at a fair price....
Sorry if that doesn't make sense. I'm kinda working from a prejudiced POV...
I listen to nothing but music I get for free from MP3.com - there are literally thousands and thousands of musicians who would rather give away their music for free, instead of getting screwed by record companies. Check out Enravota, or Tapping the Vein, or Dog Fashion Disco or The Boswells, Ultra Velvet, Triangleman, Weak, Artilect, If 6 was 9, Temple of Rain, UVVU or any one of the thousands of artists on MP3. All music done without coke addled "producers" or psychotic "managers" or bean-counting "financial experts" who "advise" the artists on how best to sell their "product". Who needs the music industry? Let them go the way of the buggy whip.
Selling a product, even music, requires capital, and more's the pity....
All those artists you mentioned above should be getting paid. And not thru a record company....
For those musicians who are between gigs tonight, or those ex-musicians who still remember what a bitch the business was, comments welcome, because it finally made the front page of my local rag's "Living" section this morning...
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