Nine Inch Nails Singer Awarded $3 Million

[karyn]

from yahoo

NEW YORK - A jury awarded Nine Inch Nails alternative rocker
Trent Reznor $2.95 million after finding his former manager breached his contract and acted fraudulently, a lawyer said Tuesday.

The jury in Manhattan federal court delivered the verdict Friday against John Malm, Reznor's longtime manager, said attorney Zia F. Modabber. The award likely would top $4 million when interest is added.

Modabber said he called Reznor, who is on tour, with the news.

"He was almost silent at first. It's still sinking in," Modabber said. "It's been a difficult thing for him in a lot of ways. They were very, very close friends."

A lawyer for Malm did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday.

The civil verdict came after a three-week trial in which Reznor testified that he was stunned to learn in 2003 that despite millions of dollars in earnings, he was left with as little as $400,000 in cash.

"I felt I had an accountant I couldn't trust," Reznor testified.

Reznor sued Malm, contending he duped Reznor into signing a contract that gave Malm 20 percent of his gross earnings rather than net earnings, and let Malm collect the commission forever.

A lawyer for Malm, Alan Hirth, said in an opening statement that Malm worked many years for no salary — and kept nothing secret from Reznor.

Nine Inch Nails' fourth studio album and first in six years, "With Teeth," debuted last month at No. 1 in sales.

[Tequila Zaire]

Wow...only $400,000?...just goes to show you that the most vile creatures in the world of entertainment really are those that handle the money. Something like this pops up quite regularly. That has to hurt though...I mean given the album sales he's had, tours, etc....and be left with so little.

Wow...I kinda feel sorry for him.

[TheDeathKnight]

I'm pretty sure he spent quite a bit of it on a lavish lifestyle, drugs, etc...

Doesn't make the stealing right, but he still should have invested
and saved his own money properly. There is no excuse. I understand
having someone handle your business affairs. But I would still want
a paycheck of my own, that I could put in the bank... I would not
count on some accountant to manage ALL my money... That's just stupid.

[Tequila Zaire]

Yeah, at some point you just gotta sit down like the average joe and look over your checkbook...or just stick it all in the bank and have a more mainstream accounting firm handle it. Sure you won't get any fancy tax breaks and other financial voodoo...but at least you'll still HAVE money.

Though I am curious how lavish ole Trent really lives...I mean for a good chunk of years there he kept dressing like he walked off the Taxi Driver set.

[TheDeathKnight]

I totally understand an artist wanting to be free of financial bullshit, and just let someone else handle all the contracts, legal stuff, money stuff, etc... But you have to seperate your business from your personal money. You have to get a paycheck, and you have to put it into a regular account that you control. If your business goes under, or your career takes a nosedive, at least you have your paychecks in the bank. There is no reason for these people to have these problems, except that they let someone handle ALL their money, and just give them an allowance. Now that is just stupid...

[Amelia G]

Money seems to make a lot of people pretty vile. On the one hand, I don't want to accept the punk rock notion that that type of success is bad and think that NIN sucked from the first moment Pretty Hate Machine hit the radio. On the other hand, it never stops amazing me how much people will be loathsome once money is involved.

Gross is bigger than net of course, but it is much easier to do the math on. I would have a lot more dough personally if I paid royalties only on net, but, for example, when I pay models royalties, I pay them a % of gross and not of net i.e. I pay based on total $ coming in and not the much much smaller amount which is just profit. Basically I pay them the way Reznor was paying his manager. Sometimes I have expenses which would bring the net down to a negative number, but I still pay based on the gross. Maybe I need to look over my checkbooks and rethink this. If a court thinks I'd be getting the short end of the stick, then maybe I am being a chump here.

On the flip site, the guy who wrote Forrest Gump was supposed to get a % of net and, when the studio saw how much $ the flick made, they didn't want to pay and did creative accounting to make it look like the movie grossed tons but netted nothing and had not made a profit to share. If his deal had been based on net, it would have been much easier to figure out.

What the heck did Trent Reznor make millions on in 2003? What did he do that year? I love a lot of his music, but my trivia knowledge is, alas, limited.

I'd have to know a lot more about this case to really have an opinion beyond I sure hate how money makes people act.

[Kidthorazine]

Money seems to make a lot of people pretty vile. On the one hand, I don't want to accept the punk rock notion that that type of success is bad and think that NIN sucked from the first moment Pretty Hate Machine hit the radio. On the other hand, it never stops amazing me how much people will be loathsome once money is involved.

Gross is bigger than net of course, but it is much easier to do the math on. I would have a lot more dough personally if I paid royalties only on net, but, for example, when I pay models royalties, I pay them a % of gross and not of net i.e. I pay based on total $ coming in and not the much much smaller amount which is just profit. Basically I pay them the way Reznor was paying his manager. Sometimes I have expenses which would bring the net down to a negative number, but I still pay based on the gross. Maybe I need to look over my checkbooks and rethink this. If a court thinks I'd be getting the short end of the stick, then maybe I am being a chump here.

On the flip site, the guy who wrote Forrest Gump was supposed to get a % of net and, when the studio saw how much $ the flick made, they didn't want to pay and did creative accounting to make it look like the movie grossed tons but netted nothing and had not made a profit to share. If his deal had been based on net, it would have been much easier to figure out.

What the heck did Trent Reznor make millions on in 2003? What did he do that year? I love a lot of his music, but my trivia knowledge is, alas, limited.

I'd have to know a lot more about this case to really have an opinion beyond I sure hate how money makes people act.

yeah i tottaly agree I went to boarding school with a shitload of rich kids and god most of them were fucking awful I had a few freinds there who didnt let it get to them but jesus christ. And Trent i belive made money in 2003 from profits from his label and royalties he also may have done movie or TV scores or something like that. plus the way most record companies pay royalties most artists wont see any money untill a year or two after they actually make it and that gets a lot of rock stars into debt becaus their managers and hadnlers bassically give them huge credit line and then stiff them once royalties start coming in.

[Tequila Zaire]

What the heck did Trent Reznor make millions on in 2003? What did he do that year? I love a lot of his music, but my trivia knowledge is, alas, limited.

Hmmm...not sure if this was before or after 2003 but he had quite a few items that came up for sale...and stuff that STILL sells to each new generation. The Downward Spiral has become an album EVERY teen seems to buy at some point. Plus in the last handful of years he's had that Live DVD and Album come out, remixes, and a re-release of The Downward Spiral...so he's at least been busy in SOME way. Plus at one point he was suppose to have supplied the soundtrack to Doom 3.

[Amelia G]

Hmmm...not sure if this was before or after 2003 but he had quite a few items that came up for sale...and stuff that STILL sells to each new generation. The Downward Spiral has become an album EVERY teen seems to buy at some point. Plus in the last handful of years he's had that Live DVD and Album come out, remixes, and a re-release of The Downward Spiral...so he's at least been busy in SOME way. Plus at one point he was suppose to have supplied the soundtrack to Doom 3.

For some reason, I find the notion of him doing that soundtrack oddly cool.

[Tequila Zaire]

He did the one for Quake 1...he pulled out of Doom 3 due to it's overextended development cycle...but one can probably wager it had more to do with conflicting styles. The game would have demanded a much more intense and darker soundtrack than Trent seems willing to venture into. I think the game loses out on something more primal as a result.

[Escalot]

yeah i tottaly agree I went to boarding school with a shitload of rich kids and god most of them were fucking awful I had a few freinds there who didnt let it get to them but jesus christ.

Hey, sure, money sometimes gets to people, but the way you put it across makes it seem like anyone who has more money than you is an asshole, unless they are personally well known to you.

I go to school with some of the richest kids in the world, and i find that as long as you dont view them with prejudice, they're just the same as any other kids.

I'm not particularly rich, but we get by. I do, however, know exactly what it is like to be judged according to outward prejudice based on popular public opinion.

[Smudge Doll]

im kinda mixed on this feeling...

if trent agreed to this then hey sucks buddy... fire him and move on...

but then again i hate the industry for this reason too... the musician never gets the better end for doing the most work...

[a_small_death]

It's why anymore a person has to take thier art to the indy labels jut to even have a shot at making a living. Sad state of the Industry i guess.