EC Music Business Class 101

[Tony Cartmill]

EC, when you have the time, could you tell us in a long nutshell paragraph or two, how you finally gained the rights and royalties to your compositions from the record exec leeches you dealt with in the 70's? Include the clauses in the contracts and how you legally OVERCAME the typical obstacles that have victimized so many talented artists over the years.

I know it would be an inspiration to all us wannabe songwriters how you won the battle to really get paid for the work that you created.

And is the rumor true that your brother Fred helped you do this?

Thank you in advance...Take your time...

[Eric Carmen]

Once upon a time, in a sleepy little town called New York City, there dwelled a man of great charm and few scruples. Let's call him Vittorio. One day, a tape containing four songs written and produced by four young lads from the faraway Land of Cleve, found it's way to the desk of suave Vittorio who, upon listening to it, swore he could hear the magical jangle of a thousand cash registers, and decided to sign our unsuspecting lads to the most unconscionable of all the unconscionable kinds of contracts ever devised by the music industry to relieve artists of as much money as possible, should they ever earn any. It was called a "Production Deal." In addition to the 'Production Deal," he felt it was only fair that, since he had discovered them, he should also have a lopsided share of their publishing royalties.

Vittorio flew our boys to New York and dangled dreams of recording contracts in front of them and, alas, being inexperienced in these matters, the boys took the bait. The boys did get to record, and even enjoyed some initial success but, as fate would have it, never quite achieved their dream. They returned to the Land of Cleve and broke up in frustration. But sly Vittorio still owned their publishing, because contracts do not end when bands break up. Soon after, the most foolhardy but stubbornly tenacious of the four young lads, let's call him Eric, had written a new batch of songs and landed yet another recording contract. He, too, met with great initial success but was beginning to wonder what lay beneath Vittorio's charming facade.

One day, Vittorio came to Eric and asked him to sign some papers. He said he wanted to negotiate a new deal with him. Eric read the papers and was a bit confused. The papers asked Eric to recognize two new companies, called Camex and Camerica, and to agree that these were one and the same as CAM USA, the company for which Vittorio worked, and to whom Eric was originally signed. Eric asked why he needed to sign these papers and was given, what he deemed, an insufficiant answer, so he didn't sign them. Shortly thereafter, Eric moved to the Land of Lost Angels and hired a new attorney named Milt.

One day Milt called to say he had seen an ad in an entertainment business publication called Variety that seemed a bit odd. In the ad, CAM thanked Vittorio for all his years of service and announced that they had split up some six months ago. Eric was stunned. "Who am I signed to?" he wondered. He immediately called Vittorio and posed just that question. Vittorio told him it was "just business" and it "meant nothing" but Eric wasn't so sure. He asked Vittorio to let him see the books. Vittorio asked if he needed money and prepared to write him a check. Eric said he still wanted to see the books. Vittorio refused. Eric asked his agent to find him "Wyatt Earp in a business suit." His agent suggested a high powered music business attorney named Elliot.

Eric hired Elliot to look into the matter and they soon found that CAM and Vittorio had indeed split up, and they had done one more thing. They had split up Eric's copyrights as well. CAM had retained some, but they had given a large number of them to Vittorio's new companies Camex and Camerica, and some they had split up fifty- fifty. Eric recalled a clause in his contract that said that the copyrights could not be assigned to any other company unless it was "UNDER SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT AS THE ORIGINAL COMPANY."

Since CAM was owned by an Italian firm, and Camex and Camerica were owned by Vittorio, assignging the copyrights to the new companies would be a breach of contract. Moreover, Vittorio had tried to renegotiate Eric's publishing deal while reprenting that HE WAS STILL NEGOTIATING ON BEHALF OF CAM. That's fraud.

Eric and Elliot filed a $10,000,000 law suit aginst Vittorio and his companies for breach of contract and fraud and another $10,000,000 suit for punitive damages. Over the next year or two, Eric ran up $100,000 worth of legal fees and was no closer to getting Vittorio into court. Because the contract had been signed in NY, legal action had to be pursued in NY. This meant hiring NY counsel, flying back and forth for depositions and much time and inconvenience. Eventually, Elliot left because he feared that even if Eric won, Vittorio might be "uncollectable." That means all the money might be in Swiss bank accounts with Vittorio's wife's name on them. Eric was depressed. All that time, all the royalties, all that money spent on lawyers seemed to have been for naught.

But, just when things looked bleakest, out of the forest on a silver steed rode Sir Fred of Cleve, Eric's younger brother, who, as luck would have it, was an attorney. Sir Fred mounted the battle and for six more years they pursued the vile Vittorio. Finally, two weeks before the case was to go to court, Vittorio asked Sir Fred "What does your brother want from me?" Sir Fred replied "He wants your blood." Vittorio recoiled in horror at the tone of Sir Fred's statement. And his lawyer undoubtedly told him it was possible that, if the case got to court, he could lose. The next day, Vittorio's lawyers called to work out a deal. Eric wanted his copyrights back. Just the copyrights. And he wanted to be sure that any money he earned in the future would not find it's way into the pockets of Vittorio. Vittorio agreed and papers were signed.

The four lad's former record company began releasing product on a new format called the CD, but alas, the other three were still signed to Vittorio under their DREAD PRODUCTION DEAL. Vittorio kept all their money. Once again, Eric had to sue Vittorio and eventually, reluctantly Vittorio agreed he would have to pay Eric. But he continued to collect the money owed to the other three lads and refused to pay them until..... One day, as if by some sort of kismet, one of the other lads, let's call him Wally, somehow found his way, quite accidentally, to the SAME LAW FIRM ERIC HAD HIRED to go after Vittorio, and finally, after thirty years, Wally regained his copyrights.

When the boys got back together, they hired the firm to try and secure the copyrights of yet another of the boys. Let's call him Dave. Well, that brings us to today.

The boys have rekindled their friendship, regained the rights to their songs, done a small tour and are busy putting together a new CD of their live performance in the City of Lost Angels. The attorney representing them is from the same firm where "Wyatt Earp in a business suit" still practices. Vittorio has moved to back to Europe. There are rumours that his wife is in an instituion. Celine Dion sold twenty eight million copies of an album containing one of Eric's songs. Il Divo have recorded it again and have sold millions more. This time, the money did not go to Vittorio. All is well in the Land of Cleve.

This story is fictional.

Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

[suede]

I like your stories and I hope you share more of them with us.

[Kirk]

Eric, you just added a whole chapter to the revision of Marathon Man- the book. Excellent read! Kirk.

[ira]

I just woke up like many 50+ year olds do-in the middle of the night- and I thank you for such an informative and personal note which I am reading now.It is amazing the bond your music (you and the "Raspberries")has with your fans.I once went to the Cetera website to see out of curiosity what another music site looked like.It was filled with childish fan drivel.Ec.Com is a site that reflects the mutual respect and sophistication and passion for music that exists on the part of the music lovers and the music maker.Last Sunday I attended a 90th birthday party for my father-in-law Julie.I had been speaking to my cousin Wendy prior to this.She is about my age and was hosting the party.I discovered she is a real music lover too.I told her of my secret cyber-life-and sent her your Definitive Collection.She called me 3 hours after the party to say "Wow I didn't know he wrote all that stuff-I'm drinking a glass of wine and reading stuff on the website.I never realized so many people were touched by his music." Yup-we are.And I am thrilled that you, Eric, are touched by the zeal and interest of your fans.Good night and thank you.We're changing the world into Carmen and Raspberries fans-slowly-one person at a time."Today Wendy tomorrow-the world"-Ira.

[LC]

Classic. Absolutely classic.

If this were indeed a true story, that diabolical rat called Vittorio should be serving 30 years of hard time in some cold, dirt-floor, no-running-water prison cell. (And of course this is a fictional story --- how could a real person be as lacking in conscience as Vittorio clearly is?)

Tony, great question. And Eric, you have a way with words. You should do some writing!

--LC

[LC]

I do have a follow-up question....

Regarding this passage...

Eric Carmen said:

The next day, Vittorio's lawyers called to work out a deal. Eric wanted his copyrights back. Just the copyrights. And he wanted to be sure that any money he earned in the future would not find its way into the pockets of Vittorio.

...the natural question is:

If this story were true, would the young lad named Eric have been able to discover how much money his songs had earned for Vittorio? I mean, it must be substantial, so the temptation might have been to recover it... especially in the cases of the other lads called Wally and Dave.

The copyrights, I understand, are the key... pure gold. But it would gnaw at most people if they didn't try, at the same time, to get a little of what was owed them.

Unless it was a case of "a contract is a contract" up until the point it was voided....

[Tony Cartmill]

So Vittorio "The Weasel" got to keep all the royalty cash from Raspberries and EC record sales in the 70's?

And if he wouldn't have split to another company, The Weasel would still own the copyrights?

Where's Tony Soprano when you need him?

Great stuff Eric!

[Brian]

Great story,Eric!! Otto N. would be envious of Vittorio!!

[Raspbernie]

Wow! That's one heckuva bedtime story. This guy can WRITE!

Bernie

[JohnO]

And the best part about this story is the happy ending....especially when compared to many of the 60's/70's bands and musicians who got raked over the coals by their managers, and never ended up finding or hiring good lawyers to fight their cases. It seemed to be very prevalent in the Bay Area, where Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape (who recently won the right to use their band's name from their old manager, after a 35+ year fight), CCR (John F's fight with Fantsay Records), the Flamin' Groovies, Grateful Dead (before they changed management enough times until they found someone they could trust), etc., ended up getting paid a tiny fraction of their sales and earnings over the years. While in Austin a couple of weeks ago, I talked with ex-Beau Brummels singer Sal Valentino, who told me that his band (who, all things considered, were only moderately successful for a couple of years, in the mid 60's) was about the only one he knew from the SF area from that time that didn't get royally hosed by their management...and he attributed that to just plain luck. For the most part, it was cases of naive teenagers with stars in their eyes, going against sharks who saw only dollar signs, but promised these kids everything.....and many of the West Coast management types had fled from the East to avoid the payola scandals of the late 50s, so they were well-acquainted with the business.

[raspberrywine]

What a mess, thank goodness there was somewhat of a happy ending. There are too many scoundrels around, in all walks of business. Its a good thing Wayatt Earp got that law degree after the sheriff gig.

[Tiggsherby]

Wow...I'm stunned, makes me wonder why more of these guys don't meet untimely deaths!!!

[Eric Carmen]

The answer to Tony's follow-up question is Vittorio did get to keep most of the cash. We repeatedly tried to get a look at the books but were never suh-sess-uh-ful as (as Vittorio used to say).

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed there was a mysterious "fire" at CAM's NY office and amazingly the books perished in the "fire." We then tried to take a deposition from Vittorio's bookkeeper, but she had a "stroke" and couldn't testify. If he hadn't gotten greedy, I might have been there even longer. If not for "Footloose"," Dirty Dancing" and Celine's "Falling Into You" album, they might have had to bury me in a "pauper's grave" like Mozart.

[Margaret]

A great story from an amazing writer! Congratulations on your successful quest for the holy copyrights! I am a strong believer in Karma - the evil Vittorio will reap his just rewards eventually.

Margaret

[Raspbernie]

C.A.M.

Same company?

Bernie

[Gene]

The little town I used to live in was a mess... controlled by good ole boy evil doers. The good guys used to say "What this town needs is a few good funerals". Sounds like the corrupt sectors of the music industry could use a bird flu outbreak.

[Eric Carmen]

Same fictional company. Still functioning in NYC. But C.A.M. is owned and operated by the Italian company. Vittorio's fictional son ( who, on a side note, was once indicted for the fictional murder of a young woman on an island in the Caribbean, along with 3 or 4 of his rich, spoiled friends, one of whom is still incarcerated) runs Camex and Camerica. I guess you can't keep a good gene pool down.

[Tony Cartmill]

I didn't know the Mafia was in the music business.

I hope these recording contracts are written and signed with more fairness these days. There is no reason why the guy creating the product can't get paid a percentage as they go along, as well as a gross sales bonus if they hit it big, and not have to wait till everybody else gets paid with "creative accounting" first...DAMMIT!

[mamacote]

........sounds like an episode of "the sopranos".....!!!!

[Leff'tHome]

Eric,

No wonder your kids like hangin' with you! You tell the best bedtime stories...although they might be just a little scary for tender young minds.

[mamacote]

.......being a musician signed to a major label is the only job i know of where your salary is recoupable.........

[mamacote]

......producer steve albini lays it out sadly, but beautifully in an essay he calls "the problem with music"......google it, if you dare!

[Poor4Life]

Tony Cartmill said:

I didn't know the Mafia was in the music business.

One of the worst was the owner of Roulette records who was affilated with the mob. I can't recall his name , but he ripped off many of his artists.

Great story Eric, do I see "author of children's books" in your resume?

Jeff

[Laura]

Interesting story. It's a sad thing that nothing ever happens to prevent vultures from feasting on the young and naive. Glad you got your publishing back, but what hell you guys had to go through to get it.