Sony Music disburses $750 mn to artistes
Los Angeles, Aug 19 : Sony Music has begun to distribute the $750 million in profit it collected from the April sale of 50 per cent of its Spotify shares to the artistes and distributed labels within the Sony system.
Sony Music executives are calling the disbursement the "Spotify windfall", reports variety.com.
Sony, which held 5.7 per cent of Spotify's stock when the streaming service went public, will not count the funds against the artists' and label's unrecouped earnings.
It will be apportioned according to individual artiste and label contract terms and based on earnings over the last 10 years a" or since Sony's initial investment in the Swedish streaming upstart a" divisible against Sony's own revenues from the Spotify stock gain for that time period.
The cheques will arrive by the end of August as Sony had previously stated its commitment to sharing the sum with artists and distributed labels, variety.com reported.
Is this "off-cycle" payment essentially a gift?
"It's a completely voluntary payment," said Maverick's Larry Rudolph, whose management clients include Britney Spears, Aerosmith and Pitbull.
"In other words, had Sony not done this, nobody really could have complained. Theoretically, Sony got this equity on its own. But of course, they've recognized the fact that they couldn't have gotten it but for the artistes.
"And they made a wonderful decision to voluntarily share the wealth, which is rare in the music industry. So, I commend them highly on their decision."
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No govt protection, claims actress who accused CPI(M)'s Mukesh of sexual abuse
Kochi (PTI): A 51-year-old Malayalam actress who had levelled sexual abuse allegations against several male actors, including CPI(M) MLA M Mukesh, on Friday said she was not keen on pursuing her complaints due to "lack of support and protection from the Kerala government".
The complainant also alleged "carelessness" on the part of the state government and said she was "mentally exhausted" and therefore, not keen on taking the complaints forward.
"I would like to tell everyone that due to the government's carelessness and lack of protection for a woman who has come forward like this, I have suffered more than I can handle. I am mentally exhausted. They are not helping or protecting a woman.
"Therefore, I do not want to pursue the cases. It is not because I have compromised with anyone," she told reporters.
She claimed that she was made an accused in a POCSO case following her complaints against the actors, also including Maniyanpilla Raju and Idavela Babu, and the government did nothing to protect her.
"I am innocent. I want justice. I want the POCSO case against me to be probed thoroughly and quickly. If I commit suicide, the government will be responsible for it," she said.
The Muvattupuzha police had registered the case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, against the woman actor based on a complaint lodged by her relative.
According to the police, the incident occurred in 2014. The relative has alleged that she was a minor at the time of the incident and that the actor was running a sex racket.
The actor had vehemently denied the allegations and claimed that the woman relative owed her some money, and these allegations were to shift attention from her complaint against the high-profile actors.
The actress' allegations against the actors came in the wake of the disclosure of the Justice Hema Committee report which revealed instances of harassment and exploitation of women in the Malayalam cinema industry, prompting calls for action against the guilty.
The Justice Hema Committee was constituted by the Kerala government after the 2017 actress assault case.
The complete report was placed before the Kerala High Court which directed that it be handed over to the special investigation team (SIT) that was constituted to probe complaints of sexual abuse in the film industry.
Subsequently, 26 FIRs were registered by the SIT in connection with the revelations in the report.
