Record Cartels - view from outside the Napster crowd

[Malk-a-mite]

Follow the Money: Who's Really Making the Dough?

All notions of musical parasitism aside, record companies perform the critical functions that allow artists to reach the masses. That's fine, you say. The problem with the record companies is that they're too greedy. You see them selling millions of albums at $15 to $18 a pop. Where do the truckloads of cash go if not into some big-shot executive's pocket? What about artist advances and money for marketing and promotional budgets? Where does all that money come from? Who gets what along the way? In this column, we will look at how record companies work and how the money finds its way from the consumers to the artists and everyone else who works to get the music to the public.

Eric Leach is an intellectual property and business law attorney at the firm of Goodman and Leach. He can be contacted at eleach@goodmanleach.com.

Bill Henslee is a professor at Pepperdine University School of Law, where he teaches copyright and entertainment law. Contact him at william.henslee@pepperdine.edu.



We've all know this in some way or another - nice to see others standing up and saying it from a legal standpoint.