Woohoo! Just got a big fat check been waiting for many years.

D

docmirror

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Cowboy - yeehah!
So, back in the day I was an assistant recording engineer for a medium-large music studio. It's now defunct, but I have a few credits on the label for music I worked on.

The reality is, an assistant recording engineer is more like a go-fer. Get coffee, or beer, set up the mic stands, park the diva's car, take care of their pet Ocelot(uh yes, that really happened), tune instruments, stack tapes - lots, and lots of tapes, do some mixing and editing. Anyway, once credited on the production label I am supposed to be paid a very small stipend for each record/disc sale. Unless of course, someone had signed a release that the salary was compensation, and they would declaim any proceeds from the music in which case no residuals.

I signed a general release when I was hired by the recording studio. Not long after, things got slow, they laid me off, blah-blah, and then the company was sold, and the new company hired me back to do my old job. But - with one big difference. The new company checks were from the new company and not the old company I was first hired by, who laid me off. Since I was a temp employee, no one thought to ask me to sign the new release and declaim form, but they just started paying me regular salary. Again, I got a few credits on the label, and never thought anything about residuals.

Apparently, all the engineering staff had the same issue, and unbeknownst to me, they sued the new label which bought out the original label for residuals. The case drug on without me hearing about it for 11 years. Then, there were settlement talks, but they had to contact each and every artist to get their approval, which took another 4+ years. Then, the settlement was scuttled and went back into arbitration, blah-blah and I completely lost track many years ago.

Now, I just got a letter, from the plaintiff(my) lawyer, and even though I wasn't named on the lawsuit, the case finally went to trial out in liberal-land and they found for us, and awarded back residuals and interest. Less court costs and atty fees, I just got my check today and I'm going on a spending spree:


Seventy three DOLLARS and 18 CENTS. :thumbsup:

I'm thinking a new Ford truck. Or a shiny Mustang with that turbo engine. Heck, why stop there! How about a Cirrus, or go twin with an Aerostar. Ah - the possibilities are endless.

BTW, my favorite artist to work with was Debbie Harry. Despite being a Gnu Yawkur, she was actually a very nice woman. We went out a few times to clubs in the SF valley out west.

The absolute worst was the Brown Dirt cowboy Taupin. He lived up in the hills way up north of LA and he never did the vocals(of course) but he would get the rushes from England and come in and make changes to the lyrics. I'm sure there was no credit from anything I worked on there.
 
You tune instruments?

I know that's done sometimes, but I find it astonishing. I tune my own instrument. Every time, all the time. I'm also quite choosy about who I let touch my instrument.

But then, I don't spend much time recording.
 
docmirror said:
So, back in the day I was an assistant recording engineer for a medium-large music studio. It's now defunct, but I have a few credits on the label for music I worked on.

The reality is, an assistant recording engineer is more like a go-fer. Get coffee, or beer, set up the mic stands, park the diva's car, take care of their pet Ocelot(uh yes, that really happened), tune instruments, stack tapes - lots, and lots of tapes, do some mixing and editing. Anyway, once credited on the production label I am supposed to be paid a very small stipend for each record/disc sale. Unless of course, someone had signed a release that the salary was compensation, and they would declaim any proceeds from the music in which case no residuals.

I signed a general release when I was hired by the recording studio. Not long after, things got slow, they laid me off, blah-blah, and then the company was sold, and the new company hired me back to do my old job. But - with one big difference. The new company checks were from the new company and not the old company I was first hired by, who laid me off. Since I was a temp employee, no one thought to ask me to sign the new release and declaim form, but they just started paying me regular salary. Again, I got a few credits on the label, and never thought anything about residuals.

Apparently, all the engineering staff had the same issue, and unbeknownst to me, they sued the new label which bought out the original label for residuals. The case drug on without me hearing about it for 11 years. Then, there were settlement talks, but they had to contact each and every artist to get their approval, which took another 4+ years. Then, the settlement was scuttled and went back into arbitration, blah-blah and I completely lost track many years ago.

Now, I just got a letter, from the plaintiff(my) lawyer, and even though I wasn't named on the lawsuit, the case finally went to trial out in liberal-land and they found for us, and awarded back residuals and interest. Less court costs and atty fees, I just got my check today and I'm going on a spending spree:


Seventy three DOLLARS and 18 CENTS. :thumbsup:

I'm thinking a new Ford truck. Or a shiny Mustang with that turbo engine. Heck, why stop there! How about a Cirrus, or go twin with an Aerostar. Ah - the possibilities are endless.

BTW, my favorite artist to work with was Debbie Harry. Despite being a Gnu Yawkur, she was actually a very nice woman. We went out a few times to clubs in the SF valley out west.

The absolute worst was the Brown Dirt cowboy Taupin. He lived up in the hills way up north of LA and he never did the vocals(of course) but he would get the rushes from England and come in and make changes to the lyrics. I'm sure there was no credit from anything I worked on there.
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D'oh, I thought the check was going to be so much bigger than that, nice story and congratulations with your new found "wealth". At least you don't have to pay taxes on it.
 
Sweet! Upgrading to a G36?!!!

Wait.. ok ... whatever...

But kinda cool...
 
I do tune instruments. Some artists don't let you even look at their personal instruments, which is pretty apparent. Others use studio equipment like pianos and drums. Most of the stuff I did was for studio equipment. Sometimes it's a mixed bag. Leon Russel liked new strings on his guitar, so I would re-string it before he came in to record, and did a basic setup on it, then he would do a final on his own. He mostly taught me how to tune a piano and after that I usually tuned many of the pianos in the studio. It's a bit complicated, but not too bad, and it takes a fair amount of time. I got fairly good at it, and this was way before we had digital tuning assistants. All tuning forks and reference.
 
docmirror said:
Seventy three DOLLARS and 18 CENTS. :thumbsup:
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That's still enough for a bottle of Knob Creek 9 year Single Barrel 120 proof and a couple of Perdomo Lot 23 cigars.

knob_creek_single_barrel.png


Perdomo-Lot-23_1-274x300.jpg
 
You are thinking too small! A Pilatus, heck why not a 3 holer Falcon?
 
Wow... don't let all that money go to your head.!!

My mother is married to a life long musician. (both are well into their 80s) Back in the day he played back ground music in some movies staring someone named Elvis Presley. About 2 or 3 times a year he gets a residual check because one of those movies played somewhere. Those checks can be anywhere from 25 cents all the way up to $1.75.!!! :rofl:
 
I still have (somewhere) one of those class-action checks after someone sued Citibank on my behalf. They mailed it first class for $0.39...and the check was for $0.20. Lawyers...
 
Not going political or anything, but another stumbling block to the lawsuit negotiations was the union. None of us hourly employees were members, and I think they tried to get any settlement scuttled.
 
do you have to pay income tax on that money? Oh yeah....it was earned 14 years ago....$7,811 IRS penalty! :goofy:
congrats on the cash
 
You read some story's how really talented people, excellent musicians, got screwed, either by a manager or a recording company or both. Really sad stuff.
 
11 years, + 4 years, + 'many more years', I'll just round it out at 15 years....that's about $4.86/year, pretty solid! almost better than interest on a savings account!

how 'bout buyin PoA a round of brewskis with your new found fortune? :)
 
Congrats!! That's about 12 gal of flying fun!!!
 
steingar said:
Only on POA will people ***** about getting 73 bucks out of the blue.
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Why are you urinating in my thread? And where are the people who are bitching about the money?

Oh, while I'm at it, I worked for that money. It wasn't anyway 'out of the blue'.
 
Every now and then I get something in the mail about joining a class action lawsuit because I bought one product or another. I always join, never really expecting anything. I've joined suits against Masonite siding, Briggs & Stratton, the LCD class action among a couple dozen others. The Masonite actually paid pretty quickly. I didn't expect much and ended up with a check for $4,500. A couple of other paid between $5-$15. Every six months or so I get an email from LCD class action saying payments will be made at any time, but no checks so far.

The funny thing about all of these (except the siding) is that I never had a problem with the products and would never have know there was an issue if they hadn't told me. And each and every one of these settlements were for billions.
 
Congrats,I'd ask you to share,get yourself a good bottle of bourbon,and some av gas. Enjoy the money.
 
I must be channelling 6PC this late friday afternoon...

I saw the thread title, and my mind replaced the "e" in check with an "i"
 
You're well on your way to affording a broken, 90s-era jet ski.:D
 
asechrest said:
You're well on your way to affording a broken, 90s-era jet ski.:D
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Got two already. The only thing wrong with mine right now is the trim motor, and I'm not going to bother fixing it. The nozzle is pointed straight back and it rides fine.
 
Badger said:
do you have to pay income tax on that money? Oh yeah....it was earned 14 years ago....$7,811 IRS penalty! :goofy:
congrats on the cash
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Through an error, a prior employer had witheld social security on wages that were not subject to witholding. 14 years later, I got a nice check for the incorrectly witheld amount + interest. A couple of months after the check, I got a 1099 for the interest, soon followed by 4 years worth of corrected W2s for tax years in the late 90s :( .
 
I never join class action suits. It's all about piracy, the lawyers get millions. You get $10.
 
trepine said:
I never join class action suits. It's all about piracy, the lawyers get millions. You get $10.
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Yep, never join a class action suit, you're just screwing yourself if it's actually a problem. If it's not actually a problem you're just adding to the screwing up of the system.
 
Neal Howard said:
That's still enough for a bottle of Knob Creek 9 year Single Barrel 120 proof and a couple of Perdomo Lot 23 cigars.

knob_creek_single_barrel.png


Perdomo-Lot-23_1-274x300.jpg
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Nice choice on both. While not top of the line, the 23 is my go-to cigar; Always have a handful layin' around.
 
I don't think this was a class action. I really don't know, but it was only about 8 or maybe 10 guys. I think class action would be thousands of plaintiffs/consumers. I was not a consumer, I was an employee and this was contract law and residuals. Meh - I don't care either way.

Now - I'm wondering, since it's all settled and I got a whopping check, maybe I'll get those annual checks for $1.76 or something. :yes:
 
docmirror said:
Now - I'm wondering, since it's all settled and I got a whopping check, maybe I'll get those annual checks for $1.76 or something. :yes:
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Pennychecks that cost more in bank fees than they are worth. Just hope for some rapper to sample it.
 
weilke said:
Pennychecks that cost more in bank fees than they are worth. Just hope for some rapper to sample it.
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That would be nice. Lets see, Spooky Tooth? Leon Russel? Blondie? Herb Alpert? Oak Ridge Boys? GoGos, Oingo Boingo?

I'm thinking - prolly no. :tongue:
 
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