Low's struggle with Universal Music Group

It seems wild now that Low were signed by a major label for their first three albums, but considering that Vernon Yard/Virgin issued a remix album made without the band's approval or input, the least they could do is give Alan Sparhawk back the rights to those albums in the wake of Mimi Parker's death. I'm sure $15,000/year (or however much income they generate) means a lot more to him than UMG. Stereogum wrote about his struggle here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2023 11:11AM by steevee.

> I'm sure $15,000/year (or however much income they generate)
> means a lot more to him than UMG.

I'm sure that any amount of revenue means more to a major label than the welfare or needs of any artist on its roster.

(My apologies for being so cynical. It hasn't been a great day.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2023 12:03PM by Delvin.

I’ve been following some of Alan Sparhawk’s commentary on this on Twitter. I think it was that Vernon Yard was acquired by a major after the early Low records were recorded and thus Alan and Low lost any leverage over the rights? Didn’t know the full story so I will have to read the Stereogum piece. I saw Low many times in those years. Of course now there is no touring revenue with Mimi gone.

According to this Wikipedia page, Vernon Yard was a pseudo-indie division of Virgin Records which seemed to operate like a farm team: the Verve moved up to the big leagues of Virgin itself with URBAN HHYNS. I believe they also released some reggae albums in the late '70s.