Quote Originally Posted by Don Corleone
Okay, first and foremost, some of the math in that balance sheet doesn't add up. Why is the band paying of the studio costs out of their advance? Shouldn't the studio be paying the production costs? There's plenty more questions I have, like why the band never saw any royalties from the album sales, just the initial advance, their tour money and their t-shirt money.
The advance is a fancy way of saying a loan to make an album. Or a speculative investment in how the band could preform in the mass market. Essentially the band is now a quarter million in dept to the record label. Also that chart is a bit wierd. He's showing the total for different things (video tour etc) then the break down underneath.

I ran the numbers via MS excell and they are in the hole but good.
They start by being given $250000. Right off the bat they lost 47,500 in managers cut and legal fees. So they now have $202500 left. For the album they budgeted $150000, and spent 140500. For a video they budgeted $30000 and spent 37,000. They also spent $15000 on new instruments, amps, a light rack, rehearsing, and a party. So of their advance they have $10000 left. Then they go on a 5 week tour. Spent $50875 to do it and make$35000 ($50000 minus manager and agent cuts totalling $15000), so they are on the hook for the $15875. So of their advance they have -$5875 left. Now they got to keep $16000 from their both the merchandising and publishing advances so they are now at $26125. Now I worked out the guys numbers and he's right they band is in the hole $14000 on the royalties. But they had $26125 left from their advances. So they are left with $12125. But had they not jumped labels they would have had $50000 more.

Quote Originally Posted by Don Corleone
Second, even if the recording industry is constantly screwing artists, and i'm not arguing that they're not, does that justify IP theft? Isn't that like arguing that it's okay to torch the house of a pedophile? I mean, after all, he's child molesting scum... sure it's against the law, but he deserved it.
It's more like (to me) robbing the labels as a form of rebellion against their corruption and mistreatment. Mistreatment of both the artists and us the consumers. I pay $20 (minimum) for a CD.