Royalties in the VH camp

[Shumway]

I read in an interview with Queen guitarist Brian May that for their 1989 album 'The Miracle', Queen decided to divide all publishing royalties evenly between the 4 members of the band.

Before this, the song's composer always received the bulk of the money generated by its publishing.

May said that had Queen divided the money equally from the start (and not waited until the band had released 14 albums) they would have prevented a lot of fights.

So I was wondering, does Eddie earn more money from Van Halen releases as he is the band's main writer?

Van Halen writing credits always seem to be attributed to EVH, AVH, MA and either DLR or SH (depending on whom the singer was at the time. (In that order – Eddie first, singer last.)

Does this mean that as every band member is credited with the writing of songs they all get paid the same? Or do they have an arrangement? Or is this a personal matter that I should not ask about?

Just wondering...

[SToRM]

hey there,

the situation in queen seems to be a bit different, bcoz all four members wrote worldwide smahshits: we are the champions, another one bites the dust, kind of magic, we will rock you.

so i guess the fights May is talking about, were more about: who gets his stuff on the record, bcoz that's how to get more money. a bit like in kiss, where it was almost only simmons/stanley stuff, leading to frustration for frehley/criss.

so if DLR tells the truth, all the songs were composed by EVH and DLR did the lyrics, so it should be 40%/40% and the 20% for the other two .... nah, just kidding ... who knows what really happened there... they are all millionaires anyway [img]smile.gif[/img]

cheers,

SToRM

[subway]

Eddie has always split the money
evenly 25/25/25/25.

[ELVH1984]

I don't think the royalties are distributed evenly.

There was an interview with Sammy a while back (or perhaps it was an excerpt from the tell-all book that he sued to keep from being published) where he specifically said that after jack-ass-of-the-decade (my words, not his) Ray Danniels was brought in as manager, that Ray - as the f'ing manager - was making more money than Mikey.

Also, I found it rather odd that in the liner notes for BOVI, Mikey wasn't given songwriting credit for any of the 1984 tunes. I'm sure this had something to do with money, as well...

[Raldo]

That's a real good question. I have no idea how they do it (or did it) in Van Halen. I'd love to have an interviewer ask Eddie that question (with the band members with him).

[SMUDGE NYC]

100% of all royalties are split 4 ways

[SToRM]

> 100% of all royalties are split 4 ways

but that's not really fair. of course everybody involved should get its share, but 25% for everybody, i mean, that's fu**ing communism.

and they still get massiv royalties from all over the world. in a way DLR and SH are still members of the band, bcoz they still get VH money.

well, with mp3 they sure get less money nowadays [img]smile.gif[/img]

so get ready for the big-cash-in-reunion- nostalgia-trip

cheers,

SToRM

[twonabomber]

Originally posted by SToRM:
> 100% of all royalties are split 4 ways

but that's not really fair. of course everybody involved should get its share, but 25% for everybody, i mean, that's fu**ing communism.

well...maybe in YOUR band, it's communism. who are you to say what's fair for THEM? they agreed to it, what's the problem? and really, unless one of us has a copy of the contract (highly unlikely), we don't know shit...

[ September 10, 2002, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: twonabomber ]

[SToRM]

> and really, unless one of us has a copy of the contract (highly unlikely), we don't know shit...

exactly, that's why i quote myself:

"... who knows what really happened there... they are all millionaires anyway "

but, it's quite fun to speculate about it.

especially after reading DLR's book ...

cheers,

SToRM

[cyberfiddl]

Van Halen=25/25/25/25
Van Hagar=25/25/25/25
UNTIL Leffler died...then Ray Danniels wanted some of the action. Sammy said "fuck off". The brothers ended up giving RD a portion of their royalties, so, actually, the brothers were paid a lower royalty than Sam and Mike, who also said "fuck off" to the deal. How's that for a "Days of Our Lives" storyline?
My very valuable opinion? Write your own fucking songs! That (and t-shirts) is where the REAL money is. Just ask Paul McCartney (owns publishing to many Broadway musicals). Or, on the other hand, Bill Wyman(owns a really cool bass).
That's it for today's lecture in Music Bullshit 101. Remember, tuition is due yesterday. We will be recouping it from future royalties. BTW, we will still own your diploma and WILL be releasing your best work in 20 years on a 'boy-bands remembered' compilation. [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]

[BigBadBrian]

In an interview a long time ago Eddie himself said all revenue was split four even ways even though he did most of the writing.

[Picasso Brother #1]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian:
In an interview a long time ago Eddie himself said all revenue was split four even ways even though he did most of the writing.

No offense, BigBadBrian, but of course, he's going to say that. There's no way he would publically say, "Well, since I write 99% of the music, and since Al's my brother, we get the largest percentages. Mikey? Oh, he only gets 10%"......"

Back in the day, or as you say "a long time ago", it may very well have been split equally. But, as someone said in an earlier post, Ray Danniels fucked all of that up.......

Ray was about nothing but greed. Hence, the greatest hits, the inclusion of VH songs on soundtracks for the first time in history, the selling of VH songs for commercials, and Ed and Al doing a freakin' milk ad, for crying out loud.

Ray Danniels single-handedly ruined Van Halen. At least for now.........

[Sweet William]

Mad Anthony has been a salaried employee since "Fair Warning, not a "partner in the business" so to speak.