Geoffrey Wheeler in his new history  "Columbia Records: Pioneer in
Recorded Sound and America's Oldest Record Company" reprints a whole
volume of company legal documents.  One of the is the Western Electric
contract of February 25, 1925. Section 8 is the royalties.  The $50,000
is the guarantee paid in advance against the royalties for the year
ending May 31, 1926. For the first 5 million copies in a 12 month
period, it is one cent per record, three-quarters of a cent per record
on the next 5 million, one-half cent on the next 10 million, and
one-quarter cent on any sold above these twenty million copies. W.E. can
cancel if Columbia fails to sell $50,000 worth of royalties.  This
became a problem in 1933 and there are some letters reprinted to that
effect.

Mike Biel  [log in to unmask]   


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Western Electric question
From: Paul Stamler <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, February 25, 2013 12:11 am
To: [log in to unmask]

Hi folks:

In all accounts of the adoption of the Western Electric system by record

labels, it is mentioned that WE demanded a license fee (Gelatt says it 
was $50,000), plus royalties on each disc sold. None of my sources says 
how big a royalty they wanted. Anyone here know, and if so, can you 
provide a citeable source for the info?

Thanks in advance!

Peace,
Paul