Stelios 12.09.2009 04:43 |
Do you know if they were payed equaly, like a fraction of 1/4 each of them or it was more compicated? I mean its a litlle unfair if you think that John or Roger got as richer as Freddie for the Bo Rhap rights/profits? That goes for all of them of course, but i used a more graphic example.And then how about concerts? |
John S Stuart 12.09.2009 05:08 |
The simple answer is that they are all paid seperately with different incomes. This makes sense - as they also developed four unique solo and collaborative careers. John wrote the biggest selling Queen single ever (not Freddie), while Freddie then Brian contributed the lion's share of album material. I always thought that 'Laurel and Hardy' would have been paid the same - but in fact - Stan Laurel was paid far more than his sidekick Oliver. I thought that was grossly unfair until I read that one was a talented genuis who wrote produced and directed all their movies - while the other was just a 'talentless' stoodge. (Same with Simon and Garfunkle or The Beatles if you think about it). But surely such an answer is common sense and not rocket science - and therefore not worthy of 'serious' discussion? |
djcamper 12.09.2009 06:32 |
It is written in P.Freestone's book, what Fred was paid more than the rest of band. |
John S Stuart 12.09.2009 06:52 |
djcamper wrote: It is written in P.Freestone's book, what Fred was paid more than the rest of band. Besides, I bet that the 'poorest' Queenie of all (whoever that may be) is far wealthier than anyone of us in here could accumulate in a hundred lifetimes. |
Sebastian 12.09.2009 07:42 |
They earned the same from performing and co-producing each album (which is tad unfair considering that in Bo Rhap, for instance, Fred spent endless hours adding all those vocals while John only participated in the live backing track and that's it), but their publishing rights were of course different (except for 'Miracle' and 'Innuendo'). |
John S Stuart 12.09.2009 12:04 |
One question Seb: Since Freddie died and John retired, 'effectively' these two guys have not worked for around 20 years, so 'effectively' they are living off old royalties and old products. (if you excuse the pun). However, both Brian and Roger have been fully employed over the same period. Solo albums, solo careers, solo tours, Queen+ Paul Rodgers products, tours mercahdise, new Queen remastered releases, personal appearances on 'Pop Idol', collaborations with Robbie Williams, 5ive etc, etc... Therefore, considering the above, do you think that Brian has overtaken Freddie in the wealthy stakes? |
QUEENexpert 12.09.2009 13:15 |
it makes sense that freddie would be paid more than the others. i personallly think that they should all be paid equally but, sadly, thats not how all that stuff works. |
Sebastian 12.09.2009 13:57 |
Freddie's heirs still receive publishing royalties from anything using his compositions (e.g. McFly's Don't Stop Me Now, QPR's DVDs containing Bo Rhap or Champions, a film using 10 seconds from Bicycle Race), so in that matter I suppose he still 'outearns' (for lack of a better word) the Doctor, especially considering TCR wasn't precisely a huge commercial success and Fred's solo re-releases (e.g. the one for his 60th birthday) easily outsell BttL & AW. Moreover, Brian's only got one goose laying golden eggs (Rock You), while Roger's got Ga Ga and Magic, John''s got Bites the Dust, Break Free and Best Friend and Fred's got Bo Rhap, Champions, Don't Stop Me Now, Killer Queen and Crazy Little Thing. Averagely, it's much more common to find an artist covering (thus, paying royalties to the author for) Somebody to Love or Bicycle Race than Save Me or Flash. Still, the span is getting smaller with every passing day, and it's possible that some day Dr May will become more wealthy than Mercury ever was - hopefully, he'll do it through more hard work and less American Idol. |
GiantSpider 12.09.2009 14:56 |
Do Fred's estate and John get paid from Queen & Paul Rodgers products, based on the fact they tend to be released by Queen Productions & Queen Touring, of which I'm guessing they are directors or whatever? |
John S Stuart 12.09.2009 16:13 |
GiantSpider wrote: Do Fred's estate and John get paid from Queen & Paul Rodgers products, based on the fact they tend to be released by Queen Productions & Queen Touring, of which I'm guessing they are directors or whatever? Yes - and no. Yes: For their contributions - ie tracks written. No: To everything else. Why should they? |
Sebastian 12.09.2009 18:23 |
As for 'everything else', theoretically they could, if they've got rights on things like the band logo or if John and/or Freddie's heirs contribute as executive producers or something. But, besides the fact both options are quite unlikely, those are details only their accountants know about, I reckon. |
4 x Vision 12.09.2009 19:45 |
How do profits from the WWRY musical get split? EDIT : Also, very intersting to hear about the Laurel and Hardy example John. Wonder if the Marx Brothers got equal split? ... something to look into as I'm Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon tomorrow (honk honk) Sorry |
Darren1977 13.09.2009 10:49 |
How much is The Archivist paid? |
ParisNair 13.09.2009 15:58 |
I read somewhere that Freddie and Roger made the same amoutn of money out of the sales of the original BoRhap single, as I'm In Love With My Car was the B-side. This apparently caused Freddie some dissatisfaction. |
cmsdrums 13.09.2009 16:50 |
ParisNair wrote: I read somewhere that Freddie and Roger made the same amoutn of money out of the sales of the original BoRhap single, as I'm In Love With My Car was the B-side. This apparently caused Freddie some dissatisfaction. That is true, although I think there was tension throughout the whole band, not just Freddie, about it. It's not Roger's fault, but having written the b-side, he and Freddie would have shared the songwriting royalties for each copy sold. Roger bought his Surrey home with the proceeds from that. Perhaps that's why the next single (You're My Best Friend) was a John composition, with a Brian song ('39) as the b side, so that they could try to spread the royalties around. Until The Miracle, songwriting credits were still given individually, and those members would get the appropriate royalties - for The Miracle and Innuendo however, songwriting credits were given to the band as a whole, but my personal feeling is that this was done in the knowledge of Freddie's impending death so that the royalty shares were spread around, and not eaten away by Freddie's Estate taxes etc.. after his death. Earnings apart from songwriting royalties were - I believe - all put into Queen Productions after John Reid sorted their finances; from there, they would have pooled company resources to fund touring, equipment, studio time etc.., and then pay a salary to themselves (the same to each member, and quoted as £700,000 pa each in the 1977/78 Guinness Book of World Records). The WWRY and QPR enterprises have been set up as seperate trading companies, and I would expect that Brian and Roger (plus Paul Rodgers and their theatrical partners like Tribeca) will be directors of these companies. John and Freddie's Estate will still get mechanical royalties from their mateial being played and recorded, but would not be paid any kind of salary etc.. and share in the gross income from those enterprises. It would interesting to know however what the arrangements were however between 1995 (after Made In Heaven), through to 2000 (when the musical started) - Brian and Roger were working hard on behalf of Queen Productions and playing the odd gig here and there, releasing Queen Rocks, DVDs, various Greatest Hits etc... Obviously John and Freddie's Estate would gain greatly from the continued work because album and DVD sales would generate good income but for no work on their part. I only presume that QP paid Brian and Roger salaries for the their promotional work on behalf of the others? Finally, I remember that at the time of his death, Freddie's Estate was quoted at approx £12m. He was reputed to be a huge spender however and so would possibly have had a lot more without that habit. In addition, as Jim Beach, an accountant, was his manager, and he could prepare for Freddie's death well in advance, I'm sure that there must have been careful 'management and realignment' of his wealth before his death, and that his true worth was greater than quoted. In recent years, the remaining members have been quoted as worth about £75m each - I'm not sure however how this compares to the income on Freddie's Estate since his death. That's my thoughts on things! |
doxonrox 15.09.2009 01:13 |
John S Stuart wrote: The simple answer is that they are all paid seperately with different incomes. This makes sense - as they also developed four unique solo and collaborative careers. John wrote the biggest selling Queen single ever (not Freddie), while Freddie then Brian contributed the lion's share of album material. I always thought that 'Laurel and Hardy' would have been paid the same - but in fact - Stan Laurel was paid far more than his sidekick Oliver. I thought that was grossly unfair until I read that one was a talented genuis who wrote produced and directed all their movies - while the other was just a 'talentless' stoodge. (Same with Simon and Garfunkle or The Beatles if you think about it). But surely such an answer is common sense and not rocket science - and therefore not worthy of 'serious' discussion? Outside of Ringo, who were the other "talentless stooges" in the Beatles? And was George Martin a stooge as well? Lightning strikes - some get get hit, some don't. Those that don't are hardly "stooges". Queen's quest for hit singles surely shows how they were compensated. Sell records, get paid. |
Micrówave 15.09.2009 01:57 |
Sebastian wrote: Freddie's heirs still receive publishing royalties from anything using his compositions (e.g. McFly's Don't Stop Me Now, QPR's DVDs containing Bo Rhap or Champions, a film using 10 seconds from Bicycle Race), so in that matter I suppose he still 'outearns' (for lack of a better word) the Doctor, especially considering TCR wasn't precisely a huge commercial success and Fred's solo re-releases (e.g. the one for his 60th birthday) easily outsell BttL & AW. Moreover, Brian's only got one goose laying golden eggs (Rock You), while Roger's got Ga Ga and Magic, John''s got Bites the Dust, Break Free and Best Friend and Fred's got Bo Rhap, Champions, Don't Stop Me Now, Killer Queen and Crazy Little Thing. Averagely, it's much more common to find an artist covering (thus, paying royalties to the author for) Somebody to Love or Bicycle Race than Save Me or Flash. Still, the span is getting smaller with every passing day, and it's possible that some day Dr May will become more wealthy than Mercury ever was - hopefully, he'll do it through more hard work and less American Idol. I believe Sebastian has cleared it up with the first sentence in his 2nd paragraph. Brian, by far, is much wealthier. Do you know how much money Rock You makes for commercial use? For instance... in a stadium setting WWRY is played EVERY time. But not everytime does the home team win, so to think that Champions is on the same level is false. Plus, I'm sure the phrase is copywritten and Brian gets a little chunk when someone wants to use them in some kind of promotion. Plus there's the WWRY musical. I'm sure Brian gets a little extra on top just because of the name of the thing... everytime a program or TShirt is sold. It is also the 2nd most sampled song, next to Another One Bites The Dust. But most importantly, there isn't a Bohemian Rhapsody toothbrush, now is there? |
Micrówave 15.09.2009 02:00 |
doxonrocks wrote: Sell records, get paid. Actually, no. Selling records generates about the least amount of income for the artist. Touring, promotion, and merchandise is #1. If the artist is lucky to write a song that gains commercial value (such as movies and TV usage), then that can become quite lucrative as well. Generally, an artist gets about 2% off the sales of an album or song, real or digital. |
ParisNair 16.09.2009 22:00 |
When a music video is aired on TV like on MTV or VH1, does the artist get paid by the channel for using their video or does the artist pay the channel for promoting them? |
QUEEN1985 17.09.2009 14:29 |
Here is an interesting article: "ROCK legends Queen almost doubled their sales last year, banking more thean £10million. The books of Queen Productions published yesterday, also revealed that band members Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon were paid more than £1.5million each. The musicians got £1million a piece for "services and facilities", paid to their subsidiary companies, and they split a dividend of £1.75million. After a £925,000 corporation tax bill, the company still made a profit of £2.3million - up £1.6million on 2001. Thanks to a technicality, frontman Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991, is still paid a salary of £107,975. The company has also stumped up a £365,000 guarantee for the We Will Rock You musical through which Ben Elton put the band's tunes on stage". From 2001 to 2008, the band were paid out 33 million pounds in terms of record royalties. In addition, "We Will Rock You" (the musical) generated tickets sales of over $600 million. Their two worldwide tours with Paul Rodgers, generated grosses of roughly $90 million put together (although these figures are estimated). |
Micrówave 18.09.2009 00:39 |
ParisNair wrote: When a music video is aired on TV like on MTV or VH1, does the artist get paid by the channel for using their video or does the artist pay the channel for promoting them? The artist is paid by their record company. Appearances, including promotion such as videos, are all part of the contract signed at the time the deal is commenced and therefore included in their salary. |
LadySonnet 26.09.2009 08:55 |
The music industry usually pays shares on the songwriting which includes music and lyrics. For performance there are NOT royalties payed as absurd as this may sound. Usually the share of royalties is 50% for lyricist, 25% for songwriter and 25% for producer. So you have BoRhap for instance - Freddie (songwriter AND lyricist) gets 75% from each sale from the song which includes on record, tapes (back then) and EACH TIME the song has been aired on radio, TV commercials, film (Wayne's world) etc. Since the guys didn't have an equal input in songwriting in an album - there are albums with more material written by Brian, they do NOT get equal share. This is with regard to royalties. I'm not familiar on how they get their monies from live performances, though. I was wondering - now there are CDs and downloads written by Queen and sold - who represents Freddie's rights nowadays. For eventhough he's gone as an author he is entitled to his rights for 75 yrs after his death if I'm not mistaken. For more info - The Bern Convention on Copyrights. |
Holly2003 26.09.2009 10:09 |
cmsdrums wrote: That is true, although I think there was tension throughout the whole band, not just Freddie, about it. It's not Roger's fault, but having written the b-side, he and Freddie would have shared the songwriting royalties for each copy sold. Roger bought his Surrey home with the proceeds from that. Perhaps that's why the next single (You're My Best Friend) was a John composition, with a Brian song ('39) as the b side, so that they could try to spread the royalties around. Until The Miracle, songwriting credits were still given individually, and those members would get the appropriate royalties - for The Miracle and Innuendo however, songwriting credits were given to the band as a whole, but my personal feeling is that this was done in the knowledge of Freddie's impending death so that the royalty shares were spread around, and not eaten away by Freddie's Estate taxes etc.. after his death. Earnings apart from songwriting royalties were - I believe - all put into Queen Productions after John Reid sorted their finances; from there, they would have pooled company resources to fund touring, equipment, studio time etc.., and then pay a salary to themselves (the same to each member, and quoted as £700,000 pa each in the 1977/78 Guinness Book of World Records). The WWRY and QPR enterprises have been set up as seperate trading companies, and I would expect that Brian and Roger (plus Paul Rodgers and their theatrical partners like Tribeca) will be directors of these companies. John and Freddie's Estate will still get mechanical royalties from their mateial being played and recorded, but would not be paid any kind of salary etc.. and share in the gross income from those enterprises. It would interesting to know however what the arrangements were however between 1995 (after Made In Heaven), through to 2000 (when the musical started) - Brian and Roger were working hard on behalf of Queen Productions and playing the odd gig here and there, releasing Queen Rocks, DVDs, various Greatest Hits etc... Obviously John and Freddie's Estate would gain greatly from the continued work because album and DVD sales would generate good income but for no work on their part. I only presume that QP paid Brian and Roger salaries for the their promotional work on behalf of the others? Finally, I remember that at the time of his death, Freddie's Estate was quoted at approx £12m. He was reputed to be a huge spender however and so would possibly have had a lot more without that habit. In addition, as Jim Beach, an accountant, was his manager, and he could prepare for Freddie's death well in advance, I'm sure that there must have been careful 'management and realignment' of his wealth before his death, and that his true worth was greater than quoted. In recent years, the remaining members have been quoted as worth about £75m each - I'm not sure however how this compares to the income on Freddie's Estate since his death. That's my thoughts on things! Once every few months, someone says something interesting on Queenzone, and there it is. Thanks cmsdrums! |
Saif 26.09.2009 10:27 |
LadySonnet wrote: The music industry usually pays shares on the songwriting which includes music and lyrics. For performance there are NOT royalties payed as absurd as this may sound. Usually the share of royalties is 50% for lyricist, 25% for songwriter and 25% for producer. So you have BoRhap for instance - Freddie (songwriter AND lyricist) gets 75% from each sale from the song which includes on record, tapes (back then) and EACH TIME the song has been aired on radio, TV commercials, film (Wayne's world) etc. Since the guys didn't have an equal input in songwriting in an album - there are albums with more material written by Brian, they do NOT get equal share. This is with regard to royalties. I'm not familiar on how they get their monies from live performances, though. I was wondering - now there are CDs and downloads written by Queen and sold - who represents Freddie's rights nowadays. For eventhough he's gone as an author he is entitled to his rights for 75 yrs after his death if I'm not mistaken. For more info - The Bern Convention on Copyrights. Mary Austin. |