[Dixielandjazz] Song Plagiarism - was - Night Train

[Jack Tracy]

Steve Barbone wrote: 


> In our time (if you are over 70) perhaps the most prolific facilitator 
> of the trend to "copy" was Herman Lubinsky a tightwad music 
> entrepreneur from Newark NJ. He had a record store there and also ran 
> Savoy Records from his store. With Savoy, his raison d'etre was to 
> make and sell records, without paying royalties for the music. Toward 
> that end, he hired "producers" who would line up jazz and R & B 
> musicians to record "original" compositions. Then pay the musicians 
> for the recording sessions but not paying royalties to anyone. (He 
> owned the music recorded at the sessions as far as his records were 
> concerned)

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This was all apparently true, but what Barbone neglected to mention was that even though Lubinsky put all original music composed by Savoy artists into his  (Lubinsky's) publishing company, the writer of the music was still entitled to one-half of the then two cents a record royalty to be paid the publisher from the record company.

 

Thus, whether he paid them or not (many said they never got anything), he still owed them a penny per record sold.

 

Whether the counton actual  he gave to publishers of standard songs that the various artists recorded is open to debate, but publishers just shook their heads when Savoy's (along with several other small independent companies') names came up.

 

Jack Tracy