My daughter was flim-flammed the other day, and her words to me were so very typical of someone who has been burned by someone or some entity that the person trusted would never harm them. She said, "Mom, I trusted them, I really thought they had my best interest at heart, and look, they lied to me. They stole from me, they took what was mine! They said they owned it. It's MINE." I hurt for her. I knew all too well the stabbing agony she was going through because, just like her, and probably a million others in the community closest to us, and millions more beyond that, people lie to get what they want from us. We either have to sign a contract for security, or we have to sign one for financial gain; but there comes a time in most of our adult lives that we are held to a written agreement of some sort, and yes, they are usually written to work out for the better or best of the OTHER guy, not you.
For me it was a book deal. For my daughter it was a music deal. For my best friend in high school it was polarized glass! My friend was the one who came up with the general concept, and he let his dad talk him into talking about it for investment purposes with guys his dad fully trusted. Well, you don't see my buddy's name on the patent! My book deal was and is still pretty raw. I sold the rights to one of my books to a major publisher in China who SWORE up and down that it hadn't sold anything really, therefore they didn't need to pay me more than just the pennies on the dollar type payment I received for the initial 10,000 printed agreement. I found out about two years later that more than three more prints were produced, so that's at least 30,000 more books, and it was understood by my contacts in China that it was a lot closer to 100,000 copies; wow. I have (to this day) not been paid for more than a few copies. My daughter's music has been played in Japan over and over again without her seeing a penny in royalties and nope, there's nothing that can be done. We would literally have to hire an international attorney to even investigate.
Why am I lamenting over all of this? Well, it just so happens that another music friend of mine is going through this with his music now. He was hired to sing, not to think. That's what they told him anyway. He was paid to do it their way, not his way. He was given every opportunity to say no to their contractual editing and modifications they told him, except each and every time he complained they threw legalese language at him, threatened to force him to pay back his advance, and then threatened him again with whatever they thought they could get away with when he asked them to show him proof that his EP (shorter than an LP) was not doing as well as expected. People told him online how much they loved it. He could see on Spotify that it was making waves, but no money was hitting the bank! What gives, he wanted to know, and they told him to shut up and take it. Basically they told him that if he continued to ask they would drop him from their label and he would owe them for the advertising and the marketing they put into this "flop" of an EP. (Psst....if it's a flop why are they still advertising it on their site? Why not cut bait?) Yeah, they lied.
Who do we trust? Who CAN we trust? Who should we trust? Those with money have a way of making money. Those with dreams have a way of dreaming about making money. The music industry seems to be a bit more aggressive with their openness to be dishonest I think. The label my buddy is with has a history and/or a pattern of hiring a bunch of would-be artists and telling them (selling them) how great they are now, how they could be better if they just write with THEIR artists (this is a ploy to get you to give up your rights, because if they have artists who are on their payrolls writing with you, it's not really your work anymore, is it?) They tell you you're going to make it big. They pay you enough to keep you interested, or enough that you can't readily pay it back if you quit or decide it's not working out. They hire those who are not wealthy. They hire those who need their initial start up funding to make it; again, so they have their creepy little jagged hooks in you and whatever you did before that caught their attention is now theirs to exploit, sell, promote and own...did I mention they let you wear their clothes too? They'll even buy you nice things to wear so long as you understand that if you leave you have to pay for that too - - am I striking a chord?
If it wasn't so sad it would be laughable. I know it sounds really arrogant of me to say this, but I once told Oprah Winfrey no, I wouldn't show up and be on her show to talk about my dog since her people lied to me about promoting my new book on the show! I was supposed to go on air, not my daughter. I was supposed to discuss my new book. They called a DAY before the show was to be filmed in studio to say there had been a change, and that due to the many other guests they didn't or wouldn't have time to talk about my book - - no thank you. A promise is a promise. I let my daughters fly to Chicago with the dog, and I let Laura talk to Oprah. She's not that impressive to me if she can't keep her own people in line. I may be a peon, but this peon has her standards. I won't be used.
It happens! Poop happens! People happen! People are the worst! You'll never see a dog or a cat (or even a pig) betray another animal the way we harm and deceive one another. You'll never experience the back-stabbing and to-the-face lies that we humans (married couples come to mind) when we say we'll love you forever, and then have affairs. We say we'll only love you, and then cheat. Well, don't get me started on human-on-human deceit. We'll be here for a very very long time. Suffice it to say, we can't trust too many people and there's a reason for it. I like to say God gave me a brain to think with and a heart to love with. Contracts don't need my heartbeat -- they need my thinking cap! Do yourself a favor and promote yourself if you want to keep your work. You may not end up rich and famous, but you'll keep your work, and you'll own what is truly yours. I don't know, maybe you want to be rich and famous, and your work doesn't really matter to you - - that's you, not me. I won't be fooled again -- and I don't think my kid will either. Nope. She's learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment