Robert Kaye writes about his frustrations with the music industry. According to Kaye, the big labels are unfairly withholding payment to musicians, claiming the labels have not recouped their promotion costs:

I think that recouped is my newly most hated word, displacing shareholder value. This means that the label claims that Atomic Dog had not earned enough money for the label to recoup their costs for creating and promoting Atomic Dog. Shoshana was quick to point out that just in the last year Atomic Dog was used in two movies in the last year and was certain to have recouped by now. After much back and forth she finally managed to get the label for fork over some cash.

In a separate case, the New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer, strong-armed a $50M settlement from the five big labels for keeping unclaimed royalties. Spitzer was the aggressive force behind the massive settlements with investment bankers over conflicts of interest in major brokerages.

The music labels said they couldn't find such artists as Dolly Parton, David Bowie, and Dave Matthews to pay them what they were owed under their contracts. See article in the Washington Post here.

The royalty accounting practices of the recording and entertainment industries are infamous for their secrecy, and many artists can't figure out why movies and music make so much money for the corporations, yet appear unprofitable when it's time to pay the talent. The artists argue that the companies have a fiduciary duty to fairly compensate creative talent.

Courtney Love made so much noise over this issue, she's known as the "industry's worst nightmare." She eventually inked a solo deal and is reportedly settling her complaints with her label. Salon.com has an excellent piece on Love's epic effort to reform the industry.