Entertainment For Lively Minds
promOwnership
Did anyone spot this news story today? A shop owner selling collectable records is in court over the sale of promos, which the record label's claim continued ownership.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7412671.stm
(Careful what I say now but) I've bought the odd one from time to time and always felt I could disregard the sticker claiming they are still property of the label which can be claimed back. How exactly can they be claimed back? I imagine many promo's get sent out to people who haven't requested them (those at Word, let me know) and often change hands fairly quickly. And can you legally claim something back that you've posted away to someone, just because you put a sticker on it saying "it's still mine"? A lot of acts, for fear of piracy, now only offer playback for review purposes anyway (not that it's really enough for a fully realised review), so if they send a promo are they not less precious about what happens to it?
And what happens to all those promos that magazines and radio stations get. Filed? Binned? Gifts? Sold on? I know plenty of independant record shops sell them.
- More from kidpresentable.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Without giving any details away
I know a charity shop which has literally hundreds of promotional CDs in its racks. I often wondered
a) how they had so many
b) if it was legal
but I've still bought loads of them
I'm surprised
...that it's taken them this long to do this. My sister worked in a record shop that actually specialized in promo items for collectors. Every week people from radio stations, record companies and....music magazines would come in with carrier bags full of the things to sell to the shop.
And I'm pretty sure the way these things end up in the shops haven't changed. The amount of freebies record companies hand out in all areas should be looked at. Who pays for the freebies? The band?
Never
have I never heard of a promo album being requested back from a record company, apart from a Robbie Williams album that was hastily recalled, due to slanderous comments in one song.
How long are they claiming their rights last?
I've still got a load of promo vinyl albums as well as CD's.
they can
pull my promo records and cds from my cold dead hand! (copy Mr C Heston)
About a year ago...
...everything some companies sent out used to be accompanied by letters from lawyers (they're the guys who've done *really* well out of file sharing) asserting that the ownership was still theirs. Because it says in Word that we accept no responsibility for unsolicited packages I was sorely tempted to ring them up and say "I've got a thousand of your records here that you can have back. Would you send a cab?"
Does that mean that Universal still own.....
....the copy of Shelby Lynne's "Just a Little Lovin'", as sent out to me, "promo copy, not for resale", by Word for taking out a sub.........?
(brakes screech on the mean streets of Islington)
Blasé to the sounds of urban chaos, none of the people in the Word office so much as blink.
(loud thumping noise from somewhere downstairs)
Voices off: "Oi! Open up! This is the Promo Cops, and the place is surrounded!"
(the thumping noise continues, followed by a loud crash and the splintering of UPVC, then heavy footsteps up the stairs from the floor below.)
Everyone in the office pales. A coffee cup is knocked over as the Editor stands wearily behind his desk. No one else moves. Coffee drips onto the floor.
The Editor: (loudly, towards the door) Er, who did you say you were? (he moves gingerly towards the office door)
(Crash! The door flies open, to reveal two overweight executives in nasty suits, both sweating profusely. Traces of what might be pie crumbs are visible on their shirts, and there is a distinct whiff of Fuller's finest about them.)
First Promo Cop: 'And 'em over! We know they're here somewhere!
Second Promo Cop: Yeah, and make it quick, we've got a launch party to attend.
The Editor: (irked but worried) What ARE you on about?
First Promo Cop: We read it on your blog, while we were in the, er, while we were at lunch.
Second Promo Cop: You've been giving away Promo CDs, you heartless swine. You merciless bastards, you don't care about us, facing a future of digital redundancy.
The Editor: (aghast) Oh No! It's the end of us all! We're doomed!
(CURTAIN)
Stool Pigeon
Who'd have thought it of Retropath? Still, if our pals here did get banged up, we could always have a 20 best jail records thread on the blog, and perhaps they'd get the real lowdown from Mr Winehouse in the exercise yard for a future article. Fraser could smuggle a file inside one of his cakes.
However, perhaps the record companies would like back all of the many thousands of unsaleable singles & albums that I used to get paid by them to give away to chart shops in the hope their no-hoper signings could be fiddled into the charts. Or is that different? You can bet your life that the artists do pay for all of this, as performers who've had their record payments audited have found out.
Just how much more unpopular can the music industry make itself to it's customers?
Sell By Date
Perhaps they should start sending out freebies that have a certain shelf life. If vinyl was still the standard media then chocolate promos might have been a good idea! Wouldn't have been too good for the old turntable mind...
MP3s can be given a time limit surely?
Nooo! Not that! Nooooo!
Please don't mention DRM, I don't think I can take any more of that particular can of worms. I'll go postal.