3 ms·

Ask HN: Do musicians profit from RIAA lawsuits?

7 points by dnsworks 17y ago

Whenever a music label gets $5k for sending threatening letter because somebody used bittorrent to download the latest Lady Gaga song, does Lady Gaga get blood money out of that?

dazzawazza 17y ago
Many musicians have complained that they don't see any revenue from the RIAA. The best place to investigate/learn about this IMHO is techdirt[1]. Unfortunately a lot of what happens within the RIAA is private to the RIAA so it's hard to know who is getting the money. Since many artist complain that they don't see any money from online sales it could be that the record label absorbs the money and that the RIAA is not at fault. Given that the RIAA attend court with numerous lawyers I doubt they make that much money from the lawsuits they win (assuming the defendant doesn't have to pay legal fees of course). 1 - http://techdirt.com/ http://techdirt.com/
headShrinker 17y ago
No. The RIAA represents the major labels as the plaintiff. The labels consider it recouping losses, not making additional profit. They also don't consider it recouping revenue for the artist. All label obligations are fulfilled and are usually based on total album sales minus recording, production, legal and PR costs. It's important to note that most contracts a label will offer, reward the music copyright and ownership to the label, not the artist. Artists have very little grounds to sue for anything by the time the label is done with them. Unless you are Metallica, Radiohead, Prince or some other huge band that has fulfilled your 5 album label contract, and now have [a]leverage for a new more even-weighted contract or [b]millions to start your own label and produce and promote your own albums, it is likely you will sell your sole and your ownership of your music to sign a contract like the one described above.
- ismarc 17y ago
  Don't forget about the fact that contracts separate out pay-schedules for different types of distribution. And since there is no way to identify how the original copy of the artwork being infringed was obtained, they have no contractual obligation to provide any money to the artists (and even if they could, the artists are paid per-sale, and lost sales that are recouped do not get included).

7 points by dnsworks 17y ago

Whenever a music label gets $5k for sending threatening letter because somebody used bittorrent to download the latest Lady Gaga song, does Lady Gaga get blood money out of that?

dazzawazza 17y ago

Many musicians have complained that they don't see any revenue from the RIAA. The best place to investigate/learn about this IMHO is techdirt[1]. Unfortunately a lot of what happens within the RIAA is private to the RIAA so it's hard to know who is getting the money. Since many artist complain that they don't see any money from online sales it could be that the record label absorbs the money and that the RIAA is not at fault. Given that the RIAA attend court with numerous lawyers I doubt they make that much money from the lawsuits they win (assuming the defendant doesn't have to pay legal fees of course). 1 - http://techdirt.com/ http://techdirt.com/

headShrinker 17y ago

No. The RIAA represents the major labels as the plaintiff. The labels consider it recouping losses, not making additional profit. They also don't consider it recouping revenue for the artist. All label obligations are fulfilled and are usually based on total album sales minus recording, production, legal and PR costs. It's important to note that most contracts a label will offer, reward the music copyright and ownership to the label, not the artist. Artists have very little grounds to sue for anything by the time the label is done with them. Unless you are Metallica, Radiohead, Prince or some other huge band that has fulfilled your 5 album label contract, and now have [a]leverage for a new more even-weighted contract or [b]millions to start your own label and produce and promote your own albums, it is likely you will sell your sole and your ownership of your music to sign a contract like the one described above.

ismarc 17y ago
Don't forget about the fact that contracts separate out pay-schedules for different types of distribution. And since there is no way to identify how the original copy of the artwork being infringed was obtained, they have no contractual obligation to provide any money to the artists (and even if they could, the artists are paid per-sale, and lost sales that are recouped do not get included).