CALIFORNIA'S RECORDING INDUSTRY ACCOUNTING PRACTICES ACT, SB 1034: NEW AUDITING RIGHTS FOR ARTISTS

摘要

As home to both the entertainment industry and an unpredictable political climate, California is fertile land for novel ideas to take root in its state legal code. Nowhere was this phenomenon more evident than at Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's signing of Senate Bill 1034 ("SB 1034") on July 16, 2004. Officially dubbed The Recording Industry Accounting Practices Act, the bill was a response to the continuing outcry against royalty accounting practices in the music business. Artists had long bemoaned the power exercised by labels through recording contracts that gave the companies near complete control over a musician's royalty statements and financial freedom. By granting recording artists a statutory right to audit their record labels, the law was the first of its kind in the nation and endowed artists with more access to information and greater control over their careers.