Intergroove & MCPS

[TechMouse]

Just read that MCPS have got involved with the whole Intergroove thing...

Just heard from the receivers that the MCPS have contacted the receivers and have stopped ANY stock leaving the Intergroove Warehouse. This is until they have had time to check that all moneis owed for licenses to the MCPS have been paid. So labels that own the stock and pay the MCPS just after release will now have to pay in full for records that they will never see the money for as the receiver will be taking it, in other words if you have 1000 records and Intergroove has sold them you will have to pay all money due even if you will never get the stock or money. Checking the stock to see if MCPS is due will take several weeks. This is going to afect a lot of people...

This is from Functional Biff, if anyone knows who that is.

Just a heads up for anyone who might have stuff still there - if any of your artists are MCPS registered you might want to ask them nicely to not put a claim in just yet.

Anyone know why MCPS work from manufactured product rather than sold product? Seems rather silly to me...

[Miromiric]

i heard pure plastic went out of business aswell recently? am not 100% sure though.
who is left now, besides veto and triple, technowise ofcourse?

[rhythmtech]

amato, jedeye & pat hurleys dist.. plus a few others...

y did SRD stop doin techno?

[Miromiric]

never heard of those. what kind of music is it?

[rhythmtech]

they used to look after all the london acid labels back in the 90's

[dan the acid man]

amato are pretty varied i think

[audioinjection]

doesn't Neuton distro alot of techno?

[Martin Dust]

Anyone know why MCPS work from manufactured product rather than sold product? Seems rather silly to me...

It helps stop bootlegs and ensures the artist gets paid, although big labels only pay on items sold not manufactured.

[snooch]

doesn't Neuton distro alot of techno?

Yeah, I get promos from them all the time.

[massplanck]

who gives a shit about all of this?. life moves on.

[The Overfiend]

who gives a shit about all of this?. life moves on.

People involved in the business aspect of this industry.
Production. Sales. Distribution. Customers.

[TechMouse]

It helps stop bootlegs and ensures the artist gets paid, although big labels only pay on items sold not manufactured.

Exactly, it seems almost like the rule is there to crap on the little guys.

[Martin Dust]

Exactly, it seems almost like the rule is there to crap on the little guys.

There's no almost about it, there is. They don't expect the big guys to rip bootlegs I guess.

[crime]

Exactly, it seems almost like the rule is there to crap on the little guys.

and such is life.. the important thing if you are an artist is to join the relevent collection agency or get a publisher (better).. because MPCS (GEMA in germany/ ASCAP in USA) will take this money from the label whether you are a member or not....

[TechMouse]

and such is life.. the important thing if you are an artist is to join the relevent collection agency or get a publisher (better).. because MPCS (GEMA in germany/ ASCAP in USA) will take this money from the label whether you are a member or not....

Oh, I quite agree - you should definitely register and get your slice of the pie.

But in this case it seems that the MCPS is going to take money from the labels to cover physical copies that the labels will not be able to recover because they will go to the liquidators handling the Intergroove case.

Sadly there's very little legal precedent here, and since the MCPS is pwn3d by the bigger labels the little guys don't really have much of a chance.

I think Biff is liasing with the MCPS officer who is dealing with the case.

Does this affect anyone? If so, I'll try and pass on information.

[Sunil]

amato, jedeye & pat hurleys dist.. plus a few others...

y did SRD stop doin techno?

SRD mainly only carry certain Neuton stuff like B-Pitch, Tresor and others - and even at that they can be a bit inconsistent, not all Tresor releases for instance, make their way to SRD. They will tend to just do selected ones now depending on what way they work it with Neuton. SRD were exclusive UK and Ireland distribution for some of those type of labels but I'm not sure that that arrangement is still in place.

SRD's main 'dance' kind of stuff is grime, dubstep and of course drum n' bass, which is their main thing. They also do a bit of electronica and other random bits. They took on Ai last year I think, which is a definite good addition to their roster though.

@ Miro - Pure Plastic is finished.

[crime]

But in this case it seems that the MCPS is going to take money from the labels to cover physical copies that the labels will not be able to recover because they will go to the liquidators handling the Intergroove case.

The MCPS's argument will be that this money should have been paid before the records were pressed, unfair, I know, but unfortunately this is the way it works with vinyl, you are supposed to have MCPS licences before you press any records, and it has always been on amounts pressed, not sold...

Looking at these tactics by MCPS and other things I've seen GEMA do recently, I'm imagining we're starting to see these organisations responding to falling vinyl sales by coming down really hard about mechanical licencing issues.. Totally unfair to the small labels I know, but the way it is.. in some ways I could see this issue being the real killer for small independant vinyl labels...

[Martin Dust]

and such is life.. the important thing if you are an artist is to join the relevent collection agency or get a publisher (better).. because MPCS (GEMA in germany/ ASCAP in USA) will take this money from the label whether you are a member or not....

They don't collect if the artist isn't a member.

[Martin Dust]

There are a lot of people with claims in, so I wouldn't worry so much about the MCPS. I'd worry about the Record Industry pressing plant who have a massive claim in. As 90% of their stock was pressed there, you can guess where the stock is going to end up.

If you had a P&D, I'd forget about the stock they are holding and get read for a bill if you owed Intergroove anything.

[crime]

They don't collect if the artist isn't a member.

Maybe not MCPS, but GEMA in germany has collected money from Zinch for the track I did for them even though I wasn't a GEMA member.. Maybe this is because GEMA had a reciprocal aggrement with my publisher, but a bit rough on Zinch considering I thought there would be no problem with them having to pay mechanical royalties...