With the recent discussion involving the major label
move, I thought I would forward this post from the
Pavement mailing list that I was reading today:
"This is usually true, when the independent label is
decent to their bands(like Merge, Touch & Go, KRS,
Chainsaw, Matador, Dischord, Teenbeat, and others) but
not when the label is a possibly just a front,
like UP.
UP has a really nice guy named Chris Takino (sp?) who
presents himself to the bands. Partly based on what a
decent guy Chris comes across as, UP signed a great
roster of bands (BTS, MM, Quasi, Land of the Loops,
Pastels) and released a string of great records.
However, many of the bands on the label haven't been
paid properly for records sold. The
financing/ownership of the label comes from a
Microsoft
investor guy who keeps a low profile and uses Chris as
the labels "indie" identity. I may be completely
misinformed, but the impression I got from bands at
the time was that UP was created and funded by this
silent partner guy as an investment during the era
that independent labels were selling off
ownership to Majors for multimillion dollar figures
(Warner's 49% share of Sub-Pop for $20 million,
Matador's alliances with Atlantic then Capitol)
The intention was allegedly to build a roster, then
either sell the label or else sell off individual
bands contracts to Majors when they became
interested (Warners with Built to Spill, Epic/Sony
with Modest Mouse)
UP has a reputation for giving you enough to make a
record, printing nice album artwork, then never paying
any royalties.
Another warning sign of where UP's priorities are came
when they actually tried to sue the band R.E.M. for
putting out the album titled "Up". They tried to
shake R.E.M. down for money claiming that people
would be confused by the album title and think that it
was an UP release.
In life in general, I think bringing legal action (and
lawyers in general) into situations where you don't
need to, in a desperate effort to grab some cash is
pretty gross. This seems to be business as usual
for the guy silently running UP.
The Modest Mouse guys did a lot of research into the
labels they considered. They have close friends who
have been treated well by a Major (BTS) and plenty of
friends on independents. They asked smart questions,
and knew what they were getting into. I wish
them luck with their future."
Some interesting claims in there... any comments???
Canes are going DOWN tonight...
*phiL*
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