They say Billy Joel was upset with his record label, Columbia, for releasing more songs than agreed upon from the “An Innocent Man” album. Why would this be so upsetting?
a) It gives his music & his name longevity!
b) It serves to further promote the album
c) It buys him time before feeling the pressure to crank out the next album.
d) Finally, it preserves him from, as he sings: “…If I get cold, I won’t get sold; I get put in the back in the discount rack like another can of beans”.
All these things work in his favor! What’s the scoop. My WAG is that CBS Records gets the royalties, perhaps. {But, how can all radio stations be monitored all the time to assure collection/payment of all the royalties due when any one song is played?}
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
He’s upset for the same reason you’d be upset if someone loaned out your car without permission.
But these are all determinations Billy Joel should make, not you. He may not feel he needs the exposure or promotion, doesn’t care if there’s pressure, and maybe he thinks that if they put songs he doesn’t approve of on the CD, it’ll put him on the discount rack all the more rapidly.
Again, someone can give you all sorts of reasons why he took your car without permission, but you’re the one who determines if those reasons are valid.
CBS gets profits on the sale of the album, but Billie Joel gets all the royalties. As a matter of fact, he’d earn more from the royalties on the extra songs than CBS would by putting them on, assuming equal number of CDs sold.
But it’s Billy Joel’s decision. He wrote the songs and he should have control over them.
They keep logs. ASCAP go over the logs and determine how much of the station’s fee goes to each artist.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.