Goddamnit…those are royalties I will never see. It hadn’t occurred to me to even look until now. I just punched in our group name hit search and an entire butt load of our songs came up. ::mad::
I guess I should delete that library of other peoples songs I’ve downloaded from napster or shut the fuck up. Maybe I will just shut the fuck up.
All of a sudden I am interested in how that lawsuit with napster is coming along. Anyone?
here’s a link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_794000/794983.stm
Apparently, Napster has hired one of the nations biggest/best/whatever antitrust lawyers, one that played a large role as one of the government’s attorneys in the Microsoft trial.
Hope this helps.
aha,
Could you explain:
“All The Five Americans’ songs can be found on Sundazed label these days…I think it is important to point out however, that no sales royalites are being received by the group for any of their hard work and creativity on these songs”
You have a fan here. I didn’t know you guys inspired the Ventures? I am humbled. Is the above true?
toecutter
Toecutter:
That website was put up in 1998. I have since changed computers and never redownloaded the FTP to change anything on it. But since then all royalties have reverted to me and the group because our former manger died last year. He maintained all these years that we had an “outstanding debt” that was never paid. That was a lie. It was his way of screwing us out of sales royalties. However I have always gotton airplay royalties. In other words when my songs are played on the radio I get a royalty because I was a writer of the song.
The ventures covered Western Union in 1968 and we were flattered. After our breakup our keyboardist was asked to join them on tour and records.
Hope that helps.
Mods if this thread doesn’t stay up with pit specs please move it if needed.
Toe no need to feel humbled. We were just a bunch of teenagers that worked hard and got lucky. But thanks just the same!
Napster lawsuit: I doubt Napster will be shut down, mostly because the Napster program/website/company/whatever itself doesn’t host any Mp3’s, it allows individuals to exchange information. At least, that’s the positive side of the argument.
aha,
I hope you don’t mind, but I was just curious, never having heard any of your songs. Well, maybe I have, but I don’t remember. Yup, you guessed it: Napster is downloading “Western Union” by the Five Americans 
Sorry mate… if it knocks me off my socks, I promise to go out and buy the album. No, really.
OK, I just finished listening to it. You know what? That IS a very catchy tune! Of course, this stuff is way too sixties for me. But nevertheless, I can see why it was a hit.
Good work, Mike! You sing like a chick though. Don’t feel bad, so does Geddy Lee 
Damn Dude, you’re nationwide! I am so impressed; I had no idea. Good sounding stuff. Where do I get a legal copy?
aha, I think the masturbation thread is in Great Debates.
Did anyone else here that Napster is suing The Offspring? It seems the band, at its concerts, has been giving away bootleg Napster T-shirts for free.
I think that’s hilarious! You’d think Napster would get the joke and just laugh about it.
Nothing personal, aha, but suck it up.
The geeks who run Napster don’t care about your royalties. As far they’re concerned, you can go felch goats to provide you with a 401(k).
The dweebs who use Napster either:
[ol]
[li]Think that you’re a card-carrying, running dog capitalist pig for expecting royalties ("Hey, man, information wants to be free!), or[/li][li]Are too drug-raddled to be able to think at all[/li][/ol]
If Napster is shut down, there wlll be Napster Antigua, Nipster (designed to evade the causes of the last lawsuit, but still not paying any royalties), etc.
A serious effort to create the new intellectual property regime could yet succeed, but there ain’t gonna be one, because too many people (in the U.S., at least; can’t say about Europe, Japan, or the rest of the Third World) hate the idea of intellectual property, hate the Bern Convention, and hate not being able to download and play anything they please.
So, you have my sympathy. Which is worth exactly what you paid for it (not counting discount for cash).
Sundazed Music
one Reed St.
Coxsackie NY
Tell them I sent you.
Coldy:
So you gonna buy and album or not? PS. I did sing high on that record but it was because I had a rubber band stretched around my nuts.
Milo saideth:
Milo since I only recently became elgible to receive royalties for my record sales that are 35 years overdue, you may see me blow my own horn from time to time about it much in the same way Eve promotes her recently released book. Although I may have chosen the wrong forum to do so it was unintentional. I was just suprised and a little pissed that people were using napster to hand my songs back and forth… but tis the way of the world and there ain’t thing one I can do about it.
So let me just say it once and I won’t say it again. Go out and *buy *the new Western Union compilation on sundazed music. My kids need a new pair of shoes.
Now come here…::Slap of side the head:::
Milossarian said:
Actually, a quick check on the offspring website shows that they reached an agreement. The band and napster are giving all after-production profits from t-shirt sales to charities.
Not wanting to fuel any fire but I just downloaded said song just out of interest . It is not really my type of thing but I also can see why it would of been a hit in the 60’s(?).
I have never heard of your band or your song a-ha so I don’t think you would of seen any royalties come from yours truely anyway .
Nice hearing the song though . 
No problem yojimbo hope you enjoyed the song. We actually had 5 chart records but Western Union was the biggest.
Please feel free to request it on your local oldies station sometime I get airplay money when it’s played.
Hey, I like that song “Western Union”, and have it on an 8-track somewhere. I had no idea that was you!
Normally I’d download it on Napster and not feel too bad since I own the 8-track already, and have no player. But another idea is coming to mind, which is…
How much airplay money do you get personally for a playing? Maybe the Straight Dopers can engage in a multi-city mass phoning of oldies radio stations and make you rich? I mean, how many plays 'till 1,000,000? (seriously!) That would be sorta like clicking on banner ads on purpose, except for a good cause. We could all get together and organize "Western Union Week" at the Straight Dope! And maybe if you only get something like 0.0001 per play, perhaps you can at least have a beer on us!
And, of course, Akatsukami made another general, sweeping statement about Napster users that does not further the debate on preventing artists from losing money which is rightfully theirs when he categorized all Napster users by saying:
or,
3) Have downloaded many songs which they currently own on 45, LP, 8-track, and cassette since they no longer have a player for any of these formats anymore. Now I don’t feel so dumb for buying so many rare B-sides without a player for them. I’ve been able to download every single 45 B-side I own, and hear some of them for the first time ever.
or,
4) A small fraction (< 1% I guess) are trading legal, free songs that have been released by the artists for the purpose of being shared and copied, such as live Grateful Dead music.
But thanks for stopping by! Please drive through.
6 cents per play. Split three ways ( there were three writers) our big WU is played approximately 15000 tmes per quarter in the US and Canada. You do the math.
hahah please request it every chance you get.
Western Union reached a million plays last year.
BTW reaching a million plays on air is the same as taking a 45 single and playing it over and over for 5 and one half years without stopping. Useful information no?
I’m old school. When I want music, I hie myself to the record store and purchase the CD. I’m a semi-professional songwriter-musician myself, and the idea of going through the effort of writing, recording, and releasing an album then receiving no royalties on it frightens me.
BTW, aha, I love your song Western Union. A female friend of mine got pregnant and was telling me she didn’t know how to tell her parents. I started singing “Western Union, ditditditdit…” etc. It was inappropriate, for sure, but she laughed and thanked me for cheering her up. (PS, the kid is now 2 years old and doing fine>)
My younger brother’s range is about five octaves deeper than James Earl Jones (or at least it seems that way), and he used to be a BIG fan of Rush. Maybe he still is, I dunno. Anyway, we were talking about singing (John used to sing opera, all that wop blood, you know) and he said that he’d love to cover some Rush songs, but he’d have to have a pair of vice-grip pliers clamped to his balls.
Anyway, aha, I liked WU when I first heard it, and I still like to listen to it.