All that glitters ain't gold.

January 23, 2002 6:28 AM

All that glitters ain't gold. Or is it? Mariah Carey's last record sold 2 million copies. Not good enough! The solution? Pay her $28 million to walk away. I wish my career failures paid so well.
posted by CosmicSlop (9 comments total)

I'll stop posting here for 28 bucks.
posted by Doug at 6:31 AM on January 23, 2002

i can't tell you how gloriously full of schadenfreude this makes me.
posted by o2b at 7:35 AM on January 23, 2002

"Double Platiunum" has suddenly taken a negative connotation? Hope KISS doesn't find out, it might bum their trip to the bank today as well.
posted by tsarfan at 10:42 AM on January 23, 2002

Read into the history of KISS. You'll find that they've had more than a few depressing trips to the bank over the years. However, the extended reunion tour and merchandising of the last 5 years has them pretty much set for life. Well, Gene and Paul, anyway. Ace and Peter were essentially paid as contract employees, not full-share group members.
posted by CosmicSlop at 11:13 AM on January 23, 2002

If only this would happen to the Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, Madonna, N'Sync, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, Garth Brooks, Britney Spears, Kid Rock, Destiny's Child, Janet Jackson, and pretty much everybody on the charts nowadays, maybe then we could see some real musicians get their just due for a change. Of course the Big Five would curl up their toes and turn to dust. No great loss.

However, what will probably happen is Mariah will just get signed on to someone else. A label that doesn't mind 50,000 US sales per album and 2 million worldwide. Her 15 minutes of fame is unfortunately not up, we probably haven't heard the last of her.

According to Billboard they were originally gonna pay her off with $100 Million but got out of the deal at one fourth the price. Does this qualify as downsizing? I'm surprised they're not blaming this on mp3 'piracy' like they do everything else.
posted by ZachsMind at 12:20 PM on January 23, 2002

EMI has been forced to overhaul its business in an industry facing sluggish growth as CD replacement sales fade and piracy bites.

Seems to me like they're blaming piracy.
posted by lesingesavant at 12:48 PM on January 23, 2002

EMI are fools, and a fool and their money ...

They gave a contract to a diva, they got a diva. Unfortunately they had scheduled her cd and movie to come out on 9/11, which, along with other events, was around the time of her nervous breakdown.

EMI are setting the example of how you take the number one selling female artist of the '90s and find several ways to lose millions and millions on her. They can blame mp3s all they want, but it didnt hurt the sales of Britney, Christina or Destiny's Child who all share the same demographic.
posted by tsarfan at 1:00 PM on January 23, 2002

Doug, your latest post failed to generate the expected level of buzz among industry insiders, and frankly we're a little disappointed in your last home movie, too.

Will you settle for $14.50 and a souvenir mug?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:13 PM on January 23, 2002

o2b: schadenfreude?

She got paid $21 million merely for signing a contract, and $28 million merely to walk away.

And you're deriving pleasure from this "misfortune?"
posted by Fofer at 11:24 AM on February 3, 2002