Link: RIAA Accounting: How To Sell 1 Million Albums And Still Owe $500,000

An astute Slashdot reader sums it up nicely:

For all the complaints from the RIAA about ‘pirates,’ who are the real pirates in this scenario? Through a variety of contractual tricks, it’s nearly impossible for artists signed to major labels to get paid. The article and video detail how an artist who thinks he’s getting a 10% royalty is actually getting closer to 2.5% through various tricks placed in the contract. The labels, then, end up with 97.5% of the gross revenue, and anything they ‘spend’ on the artist continues to come out of the royalties, not the labels’ cut.