Hello all, and welcome to June! I actually got it out on the first day this time. (Thanks, Tim, for the subtle hint)

Jim

 

So subtle and discreet, that I missed it. Can we go back, and do it over?

 

June, many people have named their kids June. Why? I have no clue. My mom's middle name was June. I had a supervisor at my old computer tech job named April. And I know some women have the name May. A few years back, well, maybe a decade now, I saw an employee at the DMV with September on her nameplate. No clue why. At first, I thought it was because they were born in that month. However, my mom was born in May, and April said she wasn't born in April. So, again I am clueless. I am also clueless as to why I even mention this, but I seem to have no other topic to write about right now, so I will use that as my excuse.

Jim

 

Do you remember, the 21st night of September?


A song written by this lady.

 

I know. Nobody outside of a few music nerds knows Allee Willis.

 

The new shoes, so that I don't embarrass myself in front of polite company. Which caused me to have to buy new socks.

 

Willis I hope has syndication rights on her works. How many reruns of Friends alone are on everyday

 

- I went golfing once with my Dad and my brother back in the '80s. It was OK, but it didn't grab me.

- My parents pulled up stakes back in the late '60s to move us from Illinois to Minnesota. It turns out, I was totally OK with leaving Illinois. I have mixed feelings about Minnesota. The winters are brutal. In the summer the mosquitos are brutal. The fishing is outstanding all year round.

I recently got a pair of Allbirds Wool Runners. I have had issues for a while with uncomfortable shoes, and I thought I'd give these a try. I may be a convert because I've been using these for all-around use, and they are about the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn.

 

It doesn't matter now that she is dead. But she had publishing. In the music world, publishing is what people get paid on. That's why so many singers are broke. They had no publishing. Every time the song played, someone else got paid.

Record labels sign artists who don't know anything about how the business works. The business works by not paying the artists.

 

I never understood why Hmong were relocated to Minnesota. Of all the places in The USA. To take people from a tropical jungle. Then place them in snow. And they stayed. They could have left.

 

I always thought that whole business was shady AF

 

Im so friggen tired of about race this n that but I believe thats where they (politicians) could hide them while saying "look, we are helping these folks" B.S. Same thing with the Somalis. The politicos will not surely have them in sunny Cali
Jus Sayin

 

I always thought that it had to do with money. Money, shady politics, and back room deals.

Surely, when you take an entire population of people, and relocate them..... there's money involved. There are probably more Hmong in The USA, than even in Laos and Cambodia. An entire ethnic group of people were plucked from their native land, and then brought to The USA.

Also weird that there are probably more Tongans in The USA, than in Tonga. The Royal Family of Tonga has a mansion in Hillsborough, California. And nobody knows much about Tonga, other than The 80's musical group The Jets.

 

Unless there is an act which is so talented, that they already have an entire catalog of music, and the finances to produce and distribute their own material - there will always be an industry.

A production company, sometimes a sub-label of a major record label, will "sign" an act. Sometimes this involves a signing bonus, and an "advance". Then to develop the act, they bring in consultants. Wardrobe, hair, dance instructors, voice coaches, photographers, voice coaches..... and songwriters. The entertainer is then brought to the recording studio, and if budgeted, a film studio for a music video. Then the label will package and market the material.

All of this costs money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, gambled, on some unknown person.

The label will need to recuperate the initial investment. Sales are promoted by touring, television & radio appearances, in person autograph and photo sessions, online influencers, et cetera. All of which costs money. The biggest expense being touring. When entertainers fly private jets, stay in 5 star resorts, ride limousines, and all food is catered - those costs add up quickly. The entertainers are also given a per diem. Every day they're on the road, they get an allowance. Oftentimes, the costs of going on the road and touring exceeds the actual revenue generated from ticket sales and merchandising. Unless you're Taylor Swift or Barry Manilow; with fans willing to shell out $2,000 for a ticket, and buy a $150 t-shirt.

So the promotional costs have to be recuperated from sales. On contracts, which are hundreds of pages long, all "recuperables" are detailed and itemized. Artists, who have no business background, have no idea what is actually written into their contracts. And artists representation typically does a very poor job of actually representing the artist.

Somehow, when a recording label invests in over 100 entertainment acts, they are still able to get a handful of hits and make trillions of dollars. While at the same time, the artists are indebted to the label and actually owe money to the label. Which forces them to go back into the studio, and out on tour, to pay the label back.

If the artists is generating income, they can ask for anything that they want. Mansions, luxury cars, shopping sprees, The label will provide it, then recuperate it. Only nobody is reading the fine print. The label can charge you whatever they want. The label can move you into a mansion, and then recuperate it. Only it's not fair accounting. They move the artists into a $5 Million house, but they will charge it back as $10 Million in recuperables.

Money is rolling in from sales of music and merchandising. Popular entertainers will sell everything from stickers, to action figures, and even ice cream bars. Even after the record label charges them back for all of the recuperables. For every $1 that is suppose to go to the artist, their "management" gets paid right off the top. The same manager who is suppose to represent their best interest, and has them sign a bad deal. The manager will take up to 20 points, maybe 30 points. Didn't Colonel Parker allegedly take more than half of Elvis' money? Now the IRS and The State get involved. There are tax liabilities. No way to get out of the government's cut. The artists is still paying the label back, for all of the recuperables.

Once the artist does not produce that next hit, the label stops indulging him. The big house, the car, the jewelry..... they take it all back. The artists never owned any of it. The record label was leasing it to him, and charging it against sales. The artist is broke, penniless, and files for bankruptcy.

Now what about future royalties? Often, the artist doesn't have any. They were only singers and dancers. They didn't write any of their own music. The publishing rights to the music goes on to pay the songwriter and the recording labels for perpetuity. While the recording labels keeps this running tab of money still owed by the artist, which accumulates interest. Even at "market rate" interest, what does a revolving credit card charge? 32% annually. The artist will never see a dime in future earnings. While the recording label will collect money from that music forever.

The artist is like the leftover chicken bones. A good singer can get a handful of hits, then it's over. Very few entertainers can continue to generate hits, without limit. That's why we always think of our favorite singers from whatever era, and the half dozen hits that they had. The entertainer now has to live off that 1 hit, or handful of hits, by performing. Self financed touring. Hire a booking agent, and hit the road. Rent cars. Stay in motels. Eat fast food. Play county fairs, elementary school cafeterias, small bars, corporate parties, weddings and bar mitzvahs...... All the while, you're still in debt to the recording label. So a large percentage of your earnings, from singing your 1 hit song, will be garnished by the recording label. This is essentially for the rest of your life, as you will never pay that debt off. Even if you get a job at Panda Express, they will garnish your earnings.

But somehow, people still make a living as an entertainer. They play that same song, over and over again, for the rest of their lives. The fortunate actually have their publishing. The less fortunate, are blessed that they're not committing robberies and prostituting themselves, like the cast from Diff'rent Strokes.



Here's Vanessa Carlton, hobbling out on crutches, to sing her one hit wonder. And she actually wrote that song. She has publishing. She gets paid every time you hear it on an elevator, in a grocery store, or dentist office.








Here's Tiffany singing "I Think We're Alone Now".






Here's Tiffany, drunk, and still trying to perform "I Think We're Alone Now".





Whether Tiffany is drunk, or not, Ritchie Cordell gets paid as The Songwriter. Cordell is dead, so the money goes to his estate. Whomever his heirs are, could still be getting paid.

 

Wow, large conversation on relocating people has sprouted up in here. And I was going to post that I just found out Chinese Checkers was invented in Germany and had nothing to do with China. When it showed up here in the US it was marketed as "Being from the Orient" and they called it Chinese Checkers. All marketing, no truth. But that seems to be off the current topic, so I won't mention it.

Jim