When Clive Davis stood up for Diana Ross in 1976...

[nomis]

In 76..Diana was the centre of a scandal involving Academy Of Motion Pictures when it declared that "Theme From Mahogany" which sat at number one on Billboard was in their words _ "qualitativley ineligible" for Oscar nomination..meaning they just didnt think it was a good song,let alone run as a Oscar nomination..next week Clive Davis came out in Billboard and said...

"Its the best song to come out of Hollywood this year.Who are they kidding?..this is an embarrassing to the entire entertainment community.There should be a petition process set up to bring the matter to the Academy.."

..and with that the Academy award members went into a spin and they called an emergency meeting to deal with the situation..and Diana got her academy award nominated song..It was quite rare for a rival label boss to defend another labels artist in such a way..it shows great faith he had in her to challenge the Academy..I doubt there was anyway Davis could have matched Summers in the Ross resigning war in 1980..I wonder how much Arista would have been willing to pay her ?

[jobeterob]

Every time any record company shelled out millions of dollars in signing bonuses, no matter who for, they generally got burned.

How much is $20 million in todays dollars? It was insane. And they did it for Kenny Rogers too!

Clive and Berry knew better.

Those days are gone; now they don't seem to be paying anything to the artists by way of signing bonuses. The artists need to make the money touring.

[LadySingsBlues]

When Diana got that 20 million contract, was that the biggest contract of anyone in music at that time?

[reese]

When Diana got that 20 million contract, was that the biggest contract of anyone in music at that time?

I think it was. Prior to that, Stevie Wonder reportedly had the best deal with $13 million. I think David Geffen signed Donna Summer for $25 million a few years later.

[nomis]

...wow 25 mill for Donna and apart from "She Works Hard" her career up until 89 was pretty much stone dead in the 80s..

[marybrewster]

Don't you all think that Diana Ross, Kenny Rodgers and Donna Summer were the beginning of the end for big money recording contracts? Of course, there was MJ and Janet Jackson, who at the time [[I think 1991 or so) had the biggest advance ever. Naturally, Mariah blew them all out of the water when she signed a 5 album, 100 million dollar contract. And gave us "Glitter", LOL.

Good on Diana: she knew her worth and struck while the iron was hot.

[nomis]

Marybrewster - not at all..Summer,Ross and Rodgers were just the start..the industry knew it could sell everything again from the 60s and 70s on the compact disc format..big advances kept going for the next 20 years..LA Ried thought Whitney was worth a 100 mil in 2000..another example that comes to mind is Red Hot Chilli Peppers walking out on their EMI contract to sign with Warners in 1992..many acts did this..it usually ended up with the artist having to allow several of their new songs to appear on the label deal that they breached contract with - Janet was the same when she went to Virgin,she still had to allow Virgin material to be licenced to A&M..and there is many others...The labels paid insane amounts to many acts often not recouping their investment...

[ejluther]

REM also signed a huge recording deal [[$80 million) in 1996. And there are also huge deals that include more than just music - Madonna signed with LIVE NATION for $120 million in 2007 in what's called a "360 degree deal" that combines recording, publishing and touring revenues.

And in 2008 U2 signed a deal with LIVE NATION for reportedly the same amount as Madonna, but their deal doesn't include the music side, just the touring, website and merchandising so it's not a 360 degree deal - more like a 180 degree deal, I suppose...
http://www.billboard.com/news/u2-sig...03782687.story

[nomis]

alot of artists wanted their advances a private matter..for every Jackson or Madonna resigning that made trade papers theres an Eagles or Fleetwood Mac deal that was done without fanfare..I was working at Virgin when Mariah was signed..that was an unmitigated disaster..Janets management let it be known they were not happy with the deal from day one the questioned the marketing ability of the label and its future preference and were naturally nervous that promotion budgets would be higher for Mariah..there were emergency meetings with Janets management to calm the waters down lol...

[skooldem1]

I don't believe for a second that these record companies didn't recoup their investments. Often, singers/artist signed to a record label get the shaft, while the record companies themselves make billions of dollars.

[nomis]

the list of high profile artists who didnt recoup advance investments by their Labels is endless..Olivia Newton John could ask for what she wanted after Grease..after Xanadu soundtrack the hits dried up..permantley for her..Kylie Minogue signed to deconstrustion in 1994 with much fanfare..two years later she couldnt get a hit single..the money Mottolla threw at Gloria Estefan in 1992..Sony had no idea her big days were behind her..in the 90s Polygram recklessly gave people like Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi huge advances to ever decreasing returns..a five album deal offered to Rod Stewart or Elton John in the last 15 years just wouldnt recoup the advance they got to stay with their labels..the list is endless..

[Kamasu_Jr]

The Academy still penalized her and Motown by voting I'm Easy the Oscar that year. How many still remember I'm Easy? No way, a label like Arista would have paid Ross big money in 1976. Clive Davis didn't have it in 1975.

[LadySingsBlues]

It does seem like most of the artists who obtain these record setting advance deals do not follow through with the hype. It's almost like the kiss of death really. Right now, they are reporting that Whitney Houston's estate won't be seeing any money for a long time because they have to recoup that $100 million deal. I really can't think of any artist who sustained big success long enough to fulfill expectations. Most were jinxed from the start.

[skooldem1]

I don't doubt what you are saying. But I still believe that record companies and their "practices" are quite shady. They make billions of dollars off of these artist. Worldwide, they make the money back. You can believe that. I say kudos to all those who were able to secure multi million dollar recording contracts. This is like saying that the NBA or NFL lose money on their investments when they sign someone to a multi million dollar contract. Those organizations also make billions of dollars and compared to what the athletes get paid, they are ripping people off also. So again, any time a athlete can make millions of dollars, I say good for them too.

[nomis]

I totally agree Skooldem..but having said that how many labels make a profit today ? the money Universal makes dosent go to Universal its goes to Vivendi the conglomerates who own the labels make the cash..EMI has lost money for years..same with Warners the corporate companies that own them have taken all the cash..all the record companies were like fish in the sea and in the end bigger sharks came along and swallowed them up...

[ejluther]

I say kudos to all those who were able to secure multi million dollar recording contracts

Me, too, unless it works out as LadySingsBlues mentions and the artist is somehow in the hole until the deal is recouped - in that case, the artist would just become an indentured servant [[or a "slave" as Prince proclaimed in the 90's)...

[jobeterob]

There was a day when the record companies were making a fortune.

Unless they've been able to convert digital sales to money, those days are long gone. CDs are making into the Billboard Top 100 selling 5000 copies these days. It's amazing the chart has survived.

[Bokiluis]

Unfortunately, Arista had just begun in 1975 with personal loans and the Buddah catalog. So no Arista wouldn't have had the money. Diana was close to signing with Arista in the 80s, but, she demanded final say on the music and Clive wasn't having it. Clive did continue to attend most of Diana's concerts throughout the 90s. If you don't think Whitney's career was patterned after Diana....well what can I say.

[midnightman]

Diana signing to Arista would've been a mess considering who he also signed in 1980: Aretha Franklin. Also there was Dionne Warwick... she wouldn't have fit in Arista really. I honestly couldn't see her in RCA but she went there because the money was too good to turn down.

[supremester]

The Academy does not make judgement calls for nominations based on "what's good enough." The question was that the song was not written specifically for Mahogany. This is a requirement although rarely enforced. In this case, Motown argued that it was a work in progress, was going to be used before but wasn't finished and was rewritten and completed for the film. The Academy acquiesced, but most feel it was in name only, and gave the award to the second highest vote because, ultimately, they didn't buy the argument but knew the nomination and Ross would be good for ratings and cache. They could not, however, guess how big an impact her performance would have on the quality of the show - or the expense to get her on it.

In 76..Diana was the centre of a scandal involving Academy Of Motion Pictures when it declared that "Theme From Mahogany" which sat at number one on Billboard was in their words _ "qualitativley ineligible" for Oscar nomination..meaning they just didnt think it was a good song,let alone run as a Oscar nomination..next week Clive Davis came out in Billboard and said...

"Its the best song to come out of Hollywood this year.Who are they kidding?..this is an embarrassing to the entire entertainment community.There should be a petition process set up to bring the matter to the Academy.."

..and with that the Academy award members went into a spin and they called an emergency meeting to deal with the situation..and Diana got her academy award nominated song..It was quite rare for a rival label boss to defend another labels artist in such a way..it shows great faith he had in her to challenge the Academy..I doubt there was anyway Davis could have matched Summers in the Ross resigning war in 1980..I wonder how much Arista would have been willing to pay her ?