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Re:Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With... by dragonwriter on Monday June 20, 2016 @05:55PM (#11941900)
> What you think of the terms between artists and labels is not really relevant to the matter at hand.

The grandparent wasn't opinion, it was correction of an inaccurate statement of fact in the great-grandparent, to wit, the false claim that record companies pay artists salaries, such that you could "steal from record companies" by piracy and hurt their income (and jeopardize the artists "employment" and "salary") separately from directly hurting artists income. Artists aren't salaried employees, they are contractors who receive sales royalties from record companies. Therefore, the scenario presented in the great grandparent is contrary to fact.

Re:Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With... by anon1234321 on Tuesday June 21, 2016 @02:21AM (#11943841)
If you don't sell any copies, you usually don't owe the advance back; it's yours to keep and the label eats the cost. It's not a salary but it has a somewhat similar effect and I stand by my point. Nevertheless, I was wrong and I do stand corrected.
Re:Scammers Game Amazon A-Z Policy By Replacing iPhones With... by pyre on Tuesday June 21, 2016 @04:30PM (#11949161)
> it's yours to keep and the label eats the cost

Not quite. It's structured as a loan. As far as book-keeping goes, they write it off as a sunk cost, but you still owe them. The contracts usually tie you to them for a period of time (or something like X albums). If you make a single album and it flops, you are still tied to them. If they decide not to give you the money to make more albums your music career is basically over.