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<\/a><\/p>\nCBS 60 Minutes last night had the disturbing story of a singer named Sixto \u201cSugar Man\u201d Rodriguez whose career began about the same time as that of Bob Dylan. Rodrigues was from Detroit and was \u2018discovered\u2019 by a Motown official, who arranged for the release of two albums by Rodriguez. Neither was a success and he disappeared from view for forty years. In South Africa, though, he became a huge favorite, selling more than half a million records, and becoming \u2018the conscience of a generation\u2019 among a certain segment of the population (young whites of British origin, mostly).<\/p>\n
The disturbing thing is that Rodriguez didn\u2019t know this. The rumor went around in South Africa that he was dead. He wasn\u2019t. He lived in obscurity in Detroit as the city deteriorated, making a living as a handyman and sometimes performer in local venues. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s considerably more to the story, but the appalling fact is that Motown must have collected money from the sales in South Africa \u2013 but Rodriguez didn\u2019t get a dime of it. If he\u2019d got even a penny a sale from half a million records that would have been $5,000, not much, but something; but in fact he never even knew he was selling in South Africa.<\/p>\n
If you ever wonder why recording artists tend to hate their publishers, think on that.<\/p>\n
Authors have justified concerns about book publishers, but I don\u2019t think of many publishing stories like that one. There was a time when publishers pretended that there was little profit in paperback sales, and the hardbound publisher insisted on taking half of the paperback royalties if a book got a paperback sale; and for a long time paperback royalties were tiny, and to this day royalty statements can be very creative; but I don\u2019t know of any cases in which an author was a breakaway best-seller and not only got nothing for it but wasn\u2019t even told he was selling.<\/p>\n
There are authors of the \u2018information wants to be free\u201d school who say that there shouldn\u2019t be intellectual property rights, and authors ought to look at the performing arts and the record industry as their model for publishing. Fortunately things haven\u2019t worked that way in print rights, and t he electronics rights market has developed in a different way \u2013 Amazon has made backlists valuable again. Perhaps they can be so for song writers as well.<\/p>\n
I have a new Kindle Fire HD but I haven\u2019t had a chance to get it set up yet; the day keeps being devoured by other stuff. And I sure have a pile of interesting mail. I\u2019m dancing as fast as I can\u2026<\/p>\n View 745 Monday, October 8, 2012 Things have been a bit hectic here, and I\u2019ve fallen well behind. Today was eaten by locusts, including taking Sable to the vet: she went Thursday last week. She\u2019s been favoring her right front leg. We start out for a walk and she \u2026 Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"