Re: [ARSCLIST] interesting

[Michael Shoshani <mshoshani@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,332087176-111639,00.html
> 
> Also interesting are WSJ articles this week about EMI's troubles.

You really should get a copy of George Martin's "All You Need Is
Ears". EMI's been an obtuse morass for decades; when Sir George
joined up over fifty years ago it was a conglomeration of different
labels that each had their own territory - a musical production would
be on Columbia but not HMV, or a comedy record would be on
Parlophone; Classical would be on HMV, etc.  The labels weren't
really competing with each other so much as providing convenient
classification systems.

Also, Martin has quite a bit to write about the way the production
staff was paid. After he did the math and figured out by the
percentage royalty he was being offered that his efforts had made EMI
a *stupefying* amount of money, with them not even saying thank you,
he resigned and formed AIR in the mid 1960s.

I'm sure you're familiar with a pop ditty called "In The Mood"?  One
of the biggest hits of the big band era; came out in 1939 and has
never been out of print since. So popular in fact that the metal
parts wore out from overuse - most pressings from the late 1940s on
were from dubs. The song made a mint for Bluebird and RCA
Victor...but for Glenn Miller? Not a dime. He wasn't under a royalty
contract then, and his attorney didn't negotiate one for him until
months after that record came out. I'm guessing that Miller got AFM
scale for the session, maybe more, and that was it.  

Michael Shoshani
Chicago