borednbuzzed,
Neither myself, or the VMG Staff and Management give a rat’s patootie whether or not you spend any money with us. It’s not a requirement to read our site and apply the information.
From the content of your post, it seems that you’re like all the rest of the locals
who do not read the site before you start blasting it and therefore have the DELUSION our contracts and mode of operation are the same as all the other Majors.
W-R-O-N-G! Record Companies that finance pipe dreams never fail to turn that dream into a no-money nightmare. If you’d read our site, you’d know that, and how to avoid it.
Ben Folds … is a prime example! He didn’t go ‘indie’ because Epic (CRG) was paying him a ton of money - or for the arts -
he was being robbed blind due the contract he got himself horsed into! His organization put a lot of money on the table (as have hundreds of other artists) to get his product released on Epic and distributed via Sony’s Columbia Record Group (CRG) -
and got themselves taken to the cleaners by signing away the Executive Producer’s rights and earnings. A very stupid move. When the
CHARGE BACK (recoupables) came due, he owed the company untold scads of money.
He signed the very contract most posters here say they don’t want,
and have a defecation hemorrhage about me/VMG telling you how to avoid it. The object is NOT to throw career and all away to get out of such a rotten deal, the object is to AVOID such damned deals to begin with.
Don’t think so? Then ask Bo Diddley, Kenny Rogers, Meat Loaf, Toni Braxton, TLC, Clint Black, Prince, Dixie Chicks and a few hundred others. When the record company pays all the bills, they keep all the money! Period. When you see someone who actually makes and keeps the money,
I’ll show you an Executive Producer that didn’t sign away those ExP rights! Period on that one too. No exceptions. Thus, the reason for the VMG site. It’s all explained there, and in no uncertain terms. The fact the Idiot Element doesn’t pay attention to either facts or realities of this Best Of All Industries is their problem.
And you’re really full of it if you think for one minute VMG is “ruining” this Best Of All Industries! We’re the hell raisers in the crowd. It was VMG who blew the whistle on all the major trade mags’ phony charts, and that was in 1989! We called Billboard, Cashbox, Radio & Records (R&R), Gavin, Indie Bullet and Record Rack all into public account -
AND WE WON!
Cashbox, Indie Bullet and Record Rack folded entirely, Billboard, R&R and Gavin went into receivership! Billboard sold out to VNU and R&R is too broke to pay attention. Gavin folded a year or so ago. The recent Billboard/SoundSCAM fiasco of a #1 record for Eminem is writing on the wall for them again. The Billboard chart is reputedly the result of SoundSCAM’s monitoring sales via computers/cash registers -
so how the hell did a record that hadn’t been manufactured yet manage to trip all those registers in the check out line?
If making public knowledge of such SCAMs is ruining the music industry, one thing is damned sure clear. The likes of you certainly aren’t worth the effort!
Fortunately, the rest of the industry is.
And you’re off the mark if you think the multi-billion dollar companies - most who make or control the manufacture of internet equipment too - are going to just disappear because of any number of on-line sites. They have all the necessary money and expertise to rule this roost too, and
I personally guarantee you, such plans are already in implementation! They’ve been on the drawing board for several years and are now well advanced. Just look for the Majors to go more
electronic than hard product until it’s virtually all electronic.
pM of impk21.co
You’re right that your talent will take you where your want to go. You just have to know how to avoid the land mines along the way. And there are a lot of them. I know, at some time or other I’ve stepped on every damned one of them - and found they reload instantly!
CyanJaguar
All United Kingdom publications read like one author, even the tabloids. Perhaps it’s because of Editorial control, a far worse situation than we have here. A lot of people investigate and write, one person makes the final copy.
If you have any specific questions, either email me direct or post them here. Just let me know one way or the other so I can get you the info (if I can

This industry is needlessly complex to an extreme degree in most cases. So keeping each part separated until it becomes the next link in the chain can be a real issue.
thegeneral@vmgworldwide.com
TDA