In a statement, Sony Music said, "We applaud the attorney general's efforts to focus attention on this area and sincerely hope that his announcement will encourage additional artists and their heirs to step forward and claim their royalties."
Bob Donnelly, an entertainment lawyer, said he brought the royalty matter to Mr. Spitzer's attention. Mr. Donnelly said that he had planned to file a class-action lawsuit against the music industry, "but every time we'd get a good plaintiff, the record company would offer to pay them." See, it's things like this that make it kind of tough to take the labels seriously when they say they are suing their customers to protect their artists.
Page 1 — Page 2
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
I tell ya, I can't find Dolly Parton anywhere!
Hey dude, just look over there!
What, those hills?
yah, dude, that's where the royalties go''
There's no way there's royalties in them there hills.
2 - TDavid
Didn't Willy Nelson have some tax trouble? I would have thought the IRS could track down those royalties ...
3 - Jim Carruthers
If the majors even give the IRS a peek at their books, unaccounted royalties will be the least of their problems (what, you think any of them have paid any taxes in the last 50 years?).
4 - TDavid
I think you misunderstood, Jim. What I meant was if Willy Nelson had been in tax trouble they can put liens on assets and unclaimed royalties are indeed assets, not liabilities to the artists :)
If Willy had been audited when he was having tax trouble (and I'm sure he was audited if he was in trouble) then I'm surprised that this wasn't one of the areas he was audited in when the IRS looked for money to attach / encumber. At that time this should have come out that he had money due him. Accountants and auditors are odd that way.
As for the question about if the artists, where required, are paying taxes? Obviously you aren't being serious.
5 - Jim Carruthers
Well, somewhat serious, since most major record companies treat their artists as contract "work for hire" liable for all their own taxes, whereas the companies themselves pay no taxes.
That's what got Willy in trouble. He thought the label was taking care of the taxes, whereas the label knew Willy would get screwed.
Pretty well every act signed to a major label contract gets screwed on taxes because they are considered "work for hire". So they get screwed two ways, they don't own what they create, and they own taxes on it.