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Artist News Business News
Rebecca Black in line for large paycheck, as label prepares “the truth”
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 23 March 2011
According to Forbes, teen pop sensation/disaster Rebecca Black is in line to receive upwards of a million dollars from her song, ‘Friday’, which has now scored over 35 million views on YouTube. The publication has based this figure on YouTube and iTunes royalty rates, though obviously what money she actually receives depend entirely upon what rights she owns in the song, which may be none.
In the unlikely event you’ve missed this story, Black was one of a number of teens who were selected by “community, music/entertainment channel and independent record label” Ark Music Factory to record a song and video with their team of songwriters and producers. Her mother says she paid the company $2000 for the privilege, leading some to the suggest Ark are basically vanity publishers who make money by charging the parents of rich kids to make cheesy records, with the false promise of pop stardom. The alleged million dollars generated by ‘Friday’, therefore, is just a happy coincidence.
So far, Ark has remained largely quiet on the subject. However, it seems this week we will finally get its version of the story. The company posted a new video to YouTube this week, pulling in videos and website comments made since ‘Friday’ became such a big hit online, some of which accused the firm of being “evil” and “exploiting children”. The video promises a proper response on Friday. Obviously.
What Ark’s owners will tell us is anyone’s guess, but you can watch the trailer for the ‘event’ here.
