Raspberries To Earn Royalties (sort of)!

[Raspbernie]

As many of you might already know, due to questionable contractural decisions made when they were very young, the band has never received any royalties or payment for the sales of their recorded music. Reissues continue to be released but with no direct benefit to the band.

The idea of selling Raspberries CDs at the shows and in the merchandise section of the web site is, at this point, the only way the band can actually share in the proceeds from the sales of the CDs. Therefore, Raspberries history will be made at the Chicago show in more ways than one. Not only will the reunited band be playing their hits on stage—BUT—after 35 years and millions of records and CDs sold, they will FINALLY get a share of their CD sales. 

What I'm saying here folks, is if you're itching to replace your worn vinyl with CD copies or just looking to add another Raspberries CD to your collection, WAIT and BUY THEM at the merchandise table in Chicago! Shortly thereafter, CDs will also be available at the Raspberries web store. This is the only way you can support the band and make sure they share in the profits.

See you in Chicago!

Bernie

[Al K]

thanx Bernie ! A "berry" nice post!!

[Art]

Great. I'll wait until after Chicago and then buy every CD. It's about time these guys reaped some benefits.

[Gene]

I'll buy a whole set of CDs. I was just looking to order some... great timing.

Gene

[susana]

Can I use plastic at the merchandise table or should I plan to bring lots of cash? I'll be doing some serious shopping...as if I wasn't already planning to do so!! Thanks for the good news, Bernie.

[marvin]

Fantastic Bernie. Can you let us in on what happened to change history?

Marvin

[John Shaft]

Now that they're going to finally be getting paid for all the hard work they've put in what do you think the chances will be of releasing those demos from the "Best Of" CD that never surfaced?

[Tom]

Bernie,

That's great news. I will certainly pick up a disk to two from the website to support the men!

[aggiesjc]

I actually need the third and fourth albums on CD, so this is great timing!

Jennifer

[Jeff]

I am a little confused also, Bernie. Did something new happen in terms of royalty distribution, or are they just getting a cut of CDs that were pressed by the original copyright holder, wholesaled to the merch counter, and now just being sold by the merch counter & web store, and the 'berries are getting a cut?

[darlene]

However it's happened, it's fabulous! The guys are finally getting some of what they've deserved all along! Bernie, great things are happening in so many ways!

--Darlene

[Al K]

maybe I can clarify Bernie's message a bit: the band is not receiving traditional "royalties" now that they weren't receiving before - it's just that now we're selling CD's at the merch areas at concerts and the website we can get the band a share of the sales. If you buy CD's anywhere else the band still won't get one penny.

[Raspbernie]

Correct! In fact, the first Raspberries CD sold at the Chicago merchandise table will be the first time the band has ever made any money off of the sale of their music—not due to royalties, because those are still going elsewhere—but because the band is selling the CD and will receive the profit that the store would usually get :-)

Bernie

[gordharris]

You know, I didn't know the Raspberries didn't make any money from their CD'S, but, when the vinyls did come out along time ago, they did make money?

Right, this is so confusing, it really is not fair for the band not to make money for themselves else where.

The music industry is a weird money making job.

[LarryGL]

Bernie--Do you know which versions will be up for sale? The four Capitol albums proper? The UK "Power Pop" Volumes 1&2?

--Larry

[Paul Sidoti]

Susana, they will have a credit card machine setup for merchandise to answer your question. Lots of cool goodies. See you all there and have safe travels.

Paul

[susana]

Thanks, Paul - look forward to seeing you.

[Argee]

So when the concert DVD/CD comes out will the guys make money or does Capitol still have their greedy hands involved?

[marvin]

I believe the guys own the rights to any of the future live recordings.

Marvin

[darlene]

I don't think the band ever got any royalties from vinyl, or *anything.* It's truly criminal. I think it had to do with CAM-USA having the rights, or selling the rights, or someone in Italy having the rights (brothers???) Ken Sharp mentioned something about it in his book. The four who should have received ALL the royalties never got any, as my understanding goes. Well, things can change! We've certainly seen that! Maybe those rights will STILL be able to change hands back to the boys. That's on my next "wish" list! For now, profits from cd sales are a great step! Things are getting better everyday (except between my boss and me. That's why I'm not going to Chicago.)

Happy for Raspberries --Darlene

[Kirk]

I think another part of the story is Capitol claims they sunk so much money into promoting the Raspberries that when the group finally split, Captitol treated them as if they owed the label money. Any profits were supposedly reinvested in the band. I'm sure someone made money off the group. Kirk.

[Gene]

I bet the Berries will make more off of selling there own CDs than they ever would from the royalties. For that matter, I guess the stores have always made more off a sale than the artist.

[Cozmik]

Bernie (or anyone who has the 'Berries ears),

I recently read an article about a new royalty for artists that went into effect under the DMCA. The royalty is paid to artists and copyright owners for digital performance, like satellite radio or internet radio. The artist's rights to royalties is separate from the copyright holder by law. So even though Capitol owns the copyrights on the recordings, the Raspberries would still collect royalties as artists. In fact, "non-featured" artists on a recording are entitled to royalties as well. This is a performance royalty and is in addition to any songwriter royalties. Such performance royalties have existed for radio play in Europe for a long time but only through this new law did they become available in the USA for digital media. Copyright owner gets 50%, featured artist 45% and non-featured musicians and vocalists are entitled to split 5% by law.

The article mentioned how a lot of artists from the 50's - 90's who never made a lot of money off their big hits because the record companies own the copyrights are finally seeing some money come in. It varies according to how much they get played of course but some artists get anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a year.

The article also mentioned how many artists just don't know about this and SoundExchange, the company set up to administer the distribution of these royalties, has a whole bunch of money they can't distribute because 30,000 artists haven't registered. They have extended their deadline to July to register to claim their share for royalties due for 1996-2000. Groups can register as one entity naming a representative or group members can register separately.

Anyway, if the guys weren't aware of this someone should clue them in so they can get any royalties due to them. All the info is on soundexchange.com.

Hope that helps!

[gordharris]

Argee, that's I was wondering, because it's a live DVD Concert movie, digital, I was wondering if it is a money making deal for the guys(Raspberries) to make money from the regular stores accross north America.

[Billy]

Soon as they are available on line count on me buying each one at least once.