Recording artists from Don Henley to Clint Black to Backstreet Boys Kevin Richardson are all pushing for legislation to tighten accounting rules they say the record companies are using to shortchange them. The record companies say they are nothing more than clerical error:

ON THE HEELS of post-Enron balance-sheet havoc, rock-'n'-roll bookkeeping is coming under scrutiny. A group of high-profile musicians who last year launched a campaign against allegedly unfair recording contracts is calling attention to long-held industry accounting practices that they contend are inequitable and even unlawful.

A parade of celebrities including Eagles members Joe Walsh and Glenn Frey, rocker Tom Waits, Backstreet Boys Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough and country singer Clint Black are scheduled to appear at a hearing before California lawmakers Tuesday to help press their case.

The artists contend that musicians are deprived of millions of dollars in royalties each year because industry accounting is riddled with mistakes and based on antiquated formulas delivered in vague language. The Recording Artists Coalition, whose members include Madonna, Sheryl Crow and Beck, is among the groups seeking legislation that would impose penalties on record companies for accounting errors.

Musicians are allowed to have their own accountants audit royalty statements. But the books on which the royalties are based typically aren't kept in accordance with generally accepting accounting standards, they say, and should be.

GETTING SHORTCHANGED?

Artists such as Eagles songwriter Don Henley and rhythm-and-blues singer Luther Vandross have said their auditors found they have received far less money than they are owed.

"You don't really get to audit the record companies. It's an illusory thing at best," says Democratic State Sen. Kevin Murray, who called the hearing along with another Democrat, Sen. Martha Escutia. He adds that the most "insidious thing" is that there are no penalties for underreporting royalties; some musicians say they have settled for a fraction of the money rightfully due them.

Record companies argue that accounting discrepancies claimed by independent auditors typically are the result of contractual vagaries, not willful deceit. Contracts are written the way they are as part of a "complex business relationship where both the artists and label understandably angle to secure the best possible contract — in negotiations or renegotiations — while still preserving a mutually beneficial relationship," says Steven Marks, senior vice president of business and legal affairs at the Recording Industry Association of America, the record companies' lobbying arm.

One music executive said that with hundreds of thousands of royalty statements sent out each year, some clerical error is inevitable.