Several well-known artists are going up to the barricades on social networks against the mercantile aspect of the Quebec music industry, inspired by singer Philémon Cimon, who took the spittoon against his distributor last month and who is tackling this issue head-on. this time at his old record company.
The singer-songwriter rebelled Tuesday on his Instagram page to still have to repay the sums invested by Audiogram for the production of his album Summer, while this same record company receives significant profits each year for this opus launched in 2014.
“It’s legal what they’re doing, because it was in the contract, but it’s not human. […] I decided to speak for myself, because of course I would like to have more money, but I mainly do that for emerging artists, ”he said Wednesday in an interview with To have to, delighted to have sparked a revolt online.
Wave of discontent
Stéphanie Boulay, one of the two Boulay Sisters, is among the first to have taken up the torch, writing on social networks that “labels have too much power over artists”, before pleading for record companies to take over ” their supposed position, that of supporting artists, who manufacture the raw material ”. Several others also showed their support for Philémon Cimon, notably the member for Québec solidaire Catherine Dorion.
Touched by this wave, the singer remains nonetheless pumped up against his old label. And for good reason: seven years after the publication of Summer he still has not received any income from the sale of CDs and vinyls, or even online listening.
His contract with Audiogram, signed in 2010, stipulated that he could start receiving these amounts when the record company pocketed all of what it had invested for the production of the album.
However, between 2010 and 2014, record sales fell dramatically. So unless you assign the rights to one of the tracks on the album to a film or a large company for publicity, Audiogram will never have a return on its investment, and Philémon Cimon will therefore not be able to collect anything from record sales.
Neighboring rights
“Audiogram persists and signs not to change the terms of the contract, but I think that makes no sense,” claims Philémon Cimon. The industry has changed and it is theft. It is no longer with the sales of records that we are reimbursed, but with neighboring rights. “
Marginal at the time of signing the contract, neighboring rights are today one of the main sources of income for artists, and therefore for record companies. They mainly include the royalties provided for the broadcasting of songs on satellite radio. Since 2014, about half of the neighboring rights for the album Summer was paid at Audiogram. A significant sum which should be more than enough for the record company to consider that it returned in its money with the album, according to Philemon Cimon.
However, neighboring rights were not even taken into account in the contract as a possible means of reimbursing production costs. “There are ways of making labels that no longer need to be. The industry has changed, but there is resistance to change on their part. They take advantage of the old rules, and this is not unique to a single record company, ”continues David Bussières, founder of the Regroupement des artisans de la musique.
The industry has changed, but there is resistance to change on their part. They take advantage of the old rules, and that’s not unique to one record company.
According to him, the record companies are wrong to penalize artists for years, the time to replenish their investment in the production of albums. Especially since the amounts granted to artists for the realization of their project come in part from subsidies, argues David Bussières.
Enough to make Philippe Archambault jump, CEO of Audiogram, also president of ADISQ. “We need that money because we take risks. Subsidies only represent 16% of our industry, ”he defends himself, recalling that artists also benefit from unexpected profits from neighboring rights.