BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
22 Mar 2008

In the wake of Bebo’s sale to Time Warner AOL for $850M, musician Billy Bragg asks: where’s the money, Birches?, referring to would-be, accrued royalties that he and other artists should have been paid from the site off its 40M users (basically, like radio).

Nick Carr says Bragg is right.  The hippie love crowd says Bragg is wrong.

Here’s the thing: anyone who says one argument is right or wrong is wrong.  This is complex.  Admittedly, Bragg’s argument traces back to MySpace, who would try to seize ownership right of uploaded music and ended up selling for $580M to News Corp.  Ironically, MySpace itself is an example of “ripped off talent and sweat” for its founders probably feel like they got jipped as parent Intermix and their VC Redpoint Partners walked away with over $550M (if not more) of the proceeds.

You see, in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate for: Bragg says that artist royalties were the white elephant in the room when Birch asked him for feedback on artists’ demands and outlook (when he was introducing music to the site).  Well, Sir, why didn’t you bring it up?  The fact that the Birches did not raise the issue does not absolve them of any duty, but it does not make them wrong or criminal, at worst, it makes them opportunistic… and more power to them… for we live in a dog-eat-dog, capitalistic society.

Why is this important?  Mr. Bragg argues that artists and musicians are no less important than accountants, engineers, investors.  He is right, but I really, really, really doubt investors would have plunked down any money if Bebo had a guaranteed liability to artists yet had no tangible guarantee of any upside, revenue or value created.

I met the Birches very briefly in LA at Paid Content’s shindig and they seemed like genuinely nice people.  I’ve never net or heard of Mr. Bragg but am sure he is no devil, either.   Life is complex, business is even more so.
Ultimately, the lesson is very simple: sadly people don’t get what they deserve (good or bad), they don’t even get what they ask for… no one hands you anything, especially not in the super competitive music or business worlds.