Z Audio closes its doors to vinyl distribution

[GradientAudio]

First of all I would like to apologise to anyone that has been affected by the closure of Z Audio distribution.
Over the last few years, as many people are aware, Vinyl sales have dramatically decreased.
The distribution was 7 staff strong at its height and was forced to close the department, as the sales were just not there to continue with the HUGE overheads involved in storage and distribution on vinyl records.

I tried to close the distribution to the absolute best of my ability, but the reality is, it has been near enough impossible to make sure everyone that had business with Z Audio Distribution, was left in good communication and accounted to in full.
To do this, there needs to be funds to administrate the staff and time spent to do so, but this was the reason we had to close in the first place.

I was forced to let go of all staff and now the company is just run by myself.

I would have of loved to have made sure everyone left happy, but I am now only one man and can only do so much.

Just for everyone’s information, I paid a hell of a lot of money out of my own pocket trying to keep it alive, but it was a battle I was always going to loose through the awful economic situation the UK and rest of the world is in.

We did manage to account and pay a majority of labels/artists and suppliers, but the sheer volume of doing this, again, was near enough impossible.

I feel I am only now getting back on my feet and have started to account to labels and artists that have not been looked after in the fall out.

Anyway, enough sob stories.
I would like to account and pay, if applicable, all the labels/artists that have been affected in all of this.

Please can you email me on zac@zaudio.co.uk and I will do my very best to get things sorted.
Please note that it may take a while to clear the back log, but I will create a folder with everyone’s issues and try and answer everyone as soon as humanly possible.

In response to Pkays post.

He has stated his side of the story, so I will now state mine.

Z Audio put out a compilation through EMI that contained the track by Culprate "Airline".

I originally contacted the label manager at Dubsaw records and asked him is he had any potential tracks for this compilation.
I was sent the Culprate track and we verbally agreed that this would be used for this compilation.

I was under the impression Dubsaw and Culprate were on good terms and stupidly, put off getting a contract signed for usage of this track. To my defence though, even if I would have got a signature from Dubsaw, they would have not legally had the rights to sign and would have been in exactly the same situation of breach.

Then on the 14th of June, a day after the release date, I was contacted by Gradient Audio saying that I was illegally selling the Culprate track and asked for me to stop the distribution of this product.

I said to Jason that it was impossible to stop the distribution as the physical copies had already been shipped.
After a long conversation to the States to explain myself and try to amend the damage, I offered Jason double the amount of what I agreed with Dubsaw.
Jason empathised with me and put the blame on Dubsaw.

So I sent payment and asked Jason to sign a contract for the usage.
He refused and got me to sign his own contract for this.

At this point, I thought me and Gradient were on good terms and felt like everything was sorted.

I was in such a panic to sort this out, I never saw that Gradient’s contract never actually gave Z Audio, Digital distribution rights for this track, even though he knew that both formats were in circulation.

After this initial communication happened (about 2 weeks or so), Gradient kicked up a massive fuss direct to EMI and was trying to get EMI to stop selling the product, even though me and him had talked and were on, what I thought good terms.

As soon as I heard this from my contact from EMI this was all going on, I called Jason to find out what on earth was going on.
I was told that the contract I signed, only gave Z Audio physical distribution rights and that I needed to pay a further fee to cover this right.

Looking back, I have no doubt that Gradient planned this all and knew that they would come back and milk me for the Digital rights after he sneakily got me to sign his contract that did not allow us to digitally distribute.
If he hadn't had planned to really dig his nails in, why did he not get me to sign the contract and agree on the distribution of both physical and digital at the point of contact?
He knew that both were in circulation.

Anyway, I then rang Jason and tried to sort it out AGAIN and he said he wanted further funds to grant rights for digital distribution, which I immediately paid.

Then, to take it even further, Gradient contacted me again and said we have a further breach because the product had been delivered to Last FM. (Again about 2 weeks later from second communication)

EMI provided Last FM with the product and I guess it is a slight grey area if Last FM are actually a regular DSP or in fact a radio station.
He said that he did not grant the rights for any radio play ect.

I do actually empathise with Jason’s gripe and this time, and did appreciate he contacted me, instead of going straight to EMI.

He wanted a further advance that would have been 100000 times over the funds coming in for such usage, but I told him he was frankly taking the piss and as a offer of compensation for this grey area, I was prepared to pass on 100% of the Last FM royalties and any other DSP's that might be deemed a regular digital retailer.

I never got a reply and knew it was only a matter of time until something like this would come about.

Make of it what you will, but feel I have conducted myself in the best manner possible and think Jason set out from the very start to make this situation as hard as it possibly can for Z Audio…………..


Zac @ Z Audio

zac@zaudio.co.uk

Alright bro lets break this shit down then.

1st as you stated earlier and i quote "I said to Jason that it was impossible to stop the distribution as the physical copies had already been shipped." Yes that is exactly how it happened i told you to stop and you told me you can't so after feeling sorry for how pathetic your situation is we agreed to license you use of what you could not undo. I created you a contract licensing your use of the material for physical sale. We didn't want to license the material to someone who is a known thief such as yourself but we wanted to resolve the issue. You could have ceased the use of the digital sales at any point. You paid us for a license for physical distribution and that's what we delivered to you. Since you can read well enough to write this post i know for a fact you can read well enough to interpret what our agreement said in plain print. After sending you this contract you tried to give us your own to sign and i refused because you are not to decide the terms of which you license music from someone else. I eplained this to you and further instructed you to cease any use that violated our contract as the terms of use had already been decided.

2nd Our contract specifically stated you only had the right to physical use and that any radio use whether internet or any other medium including uploading to social sites was a violation of our agreement and those rights we reserved for Gradient Audio. When i found that i could not upload Culprate's music to Soundcloud i went straight to EMI to resolve the issue since you had proven yourself to be a liar but after your phone call long distance telling me im a bad person and all that shit i felt sorry for you yet again and agreed to let you license the music digitally for another fee. I also wrote the people at EMI and told them we resolved it between us.

3rd When i found you had violated our contract yet again on terms that had been specified in plain print from the beginning i notified you and you called me again with your SOB story about how it wasn't your fault and that everyone except you was to blame including me. You told me you would contact EMI and resolve the issue by having the aquire the proper licensing. Not even 5 minutes after our phone call this is what you wrote me ...
"I have a feeling that if I contact EMI, they will just say that Last FM is in their DSP list and the responsibility will fall on me to resolve as they just distribute the content and it would have been up to me to check the DSP list.

I am happy to say that all revenue received from Last FM for “Airline” will go 100% to you with no royalty for Z Audio.

Does that sound fair?"

And this is what i wrote in response...
"No i'm Afraid it does not sound fair. Our contract specifically states that you were not to deliver the music to any form of radio. Since it seems fairly reasonable to assume that since the music was put into last.fm's system it is probably on pandora and even if it isn't this situation causes me to either to sell you the license granting permission for this use or track down every instance of our contract being broken and then contact emi regarding the matter which has already cost me a lot of time and effort.

I am still willing to resolve it with you.

My proposal to you is you buy a license granting you the right to use the material for these things since you have already allowed our contract to be broken anyway.

We are willing to grant permission for 150GBP please let me know if this is agreeable and i will have a license created.

This is a simple matter. You paid me for a limited license and your intention for the material involves full permissions. An easy resolution is to go through the proper channels to obtain the permission to cover your actions. Please let me know as soon as you can if we are in agreement."

And this was your response...
Hey Jason,

I have already paid you 3 times the amount that was already agreed.

I understand that we did not gain licence for radio ect and did not think that EMI would distribute to these type of DSP’s.

I am happy to pay you 100% of royalties for anything that looks like a grey area of DSP, ie Last FM ect, but I am not going to pay a further advance for this and think it is very unreasonable to ask for anything more than 100% of this/these royalties.

I have been very communicative and willing to straighten things out, but think your taking it 1 step to far.

And this was my response...
"No you broke our contract and if you can't see that it's your responsibility to make it right then i will have to take this up with EMI.

I have been nothing but nice to you. I gave it a lot of thought and this is the most reasonable solution. Please just make things right. I simply cannot grant you permission without you paying for it because that is what is fair to the artist.

I don't appreciate the way you talk to me Zac. I did not violate our contract. I have done everything i said i would. You have repeatedly violated our agreement and tried to down play it every time.

The bottom line is we'll be right back here again when i discover another radio site (And i will)

Just pay us for a full license. Please
And your agreed amount ill remind you was with a thief that stole Culprate's music. We made no such agreement so you have paid exactly what you agreed to pay with us and not a penny more."

And this was your response...
"You show no empathy to me what so ever and think you were very unreasonable to ask for a further licence for the digital distribution in the way you did.

I have no doubt you are trying to squeeze me for every single penny possible and this couldn’t be clearer.
You are not showing any human element of understanding and just finding loop holes in our contracts (that you have created) to kick a man while he is done.
If that’s what you were setting out to do, you have done a fantastic job.

If you were trying to resolve this matter with me as reasonably as possible, you would have asked for the digital and physical licence when we first spoke.
I think you were very sneaky to get me to sign a contract that only granted me the physical rights for when the physical and digital were distributed and in retailers which you clearly knew.

And then to contact EMI after I had an hour conversation on the phone to talk sensibly was just a kick in the balls.

So I’m sorry if my tone sounds annoyed, but frankly you’re taking the piss.

I have said that I am happy to pay you 100% of all royalties outside of the grey area DSP’s and can provide you with the original statements from EMI, so you can see exactly what has been received for the album.

I want to keeps things as clean as possible, but Jason, just stop and think what your doing, it’s not just not reasonable."


So here is what i have to say to you Z Audio in public for everyone to decide their own opinion of...

Your actions from day one were illegal, You stole from my friend, and you lied to me repeatedly when i was trying to be fair. If that wasn't bad enough you honestly think it's ok to take our personal business between us and lay it out for all to see using my real name in a public place. When you refer to your story as a "SOB" story you couldn't be more dead on. You are whining about something that is ALL your fault. You are a thief and so is Dubsaw. There is plenty of people out there that have been burned by your actions and if PKay wants to hear their stories it has nothing to do with me. I have not responded to your last email because instead of handling things professionally you would rather take the low road and name call and inflame the situation.

The bottom line is Gradient Audio LLC, Culprate, & Pkay all were not happy to license anything to you and only did so because it was what would resolve the situation without any further problem. It's not up to us to make you read any contract and it is not up to use to compensate for your mistakes.

For the record we don't really want to give you right to use the material for radio because that was reserved for us but since you did so anyway it seems only fair you should have to pay for it whether or not the price equals what you'll profit as you have caused damages that cannot be undone. I am begging you in public as i have already too many times before. PLEASE PAY US FOR THE USE OF THE SONG AS REQUIRED BY YOUR ACTIONS! I'm asking you in front of everyone since you couldn't keep it private. All we want is for you to pay us for the license for the right to use it or i'll have no choice but to divulge all our communications to EMI and there is no doubt that those communications not only contain repeated acknowledgement of your violation of our agreement but also reflect our discontent with your use and your childish personal responses that have nothing to do with what needs to happen to resolve the situation. Considering you can resolve this between us for 150GBP i doubt EMI is going to be happy that you turned that offer down considering as you stated in your previous communication "I have a feeling that if I contact EMI, they will just say that Last FM is in their DSP list and the responsibility will fall on me to resolve as they just distribute the content and it would have been up to me to check the DSP list."

Finally, "Last.fm" is NOT a DSP They DO NOT sell music they connect people looking to buy the music to sites where it is available which is exactly what happens when you click buy now on their site while listening to "Airline".

You are really making something out of nothing not me. You broke the law. You violated the intellectual rights of a friend of mine and music i am specifically responsible for protecting the future of.

You have also been caught using other people's music on the same release that you did not license. To put it plainly... your actions are that of a thief and i cannot say whether that speaks to your personal character because i do not personally know you i can say with 100% certainty that you stole from us and others i consider to be my friends.

[coleco]

Not very helpfull: But if you think Z-audio are bad, you wanna try Lakeside Music Management, AKA was Keynote Music Management, AKA was Load Media, AKA any names they had before that....

[GradientAudio]

Not very helpfull: But if you think Z-audio are bad, you wanna try Lakeside Music Management, AKA was Keynote Music Management, AKA was Load Media, AKA any names they had before that....

That's good to know but it only reflects the importance of the relevance of of the thread topic. These people need to be addressed directly by the community. While the subject may not apply to everyone that reads these posts immediately if you are a artist in this community it will apply to many people over a long enough period of time. As a community of artists i encourage people to not only put pressure on labels like these to do the right thing but also to call out the ones that don't so others will not make the same mistakes in trusting them. There are simply too many horror stories and these things damage artists desire to continue making the music you love because it feels like there is no point.

To anyone hurt by the actions of Z-Audio or labels like them... my sympathy is with you.

[pkay]

Zac: Glad to see you're willing to address these issues publicly

Are you implying that Dubsaw was paid in full for all of the releases for KOAN Sound and Culprate?

If so can you provide me with sales figures and some kind of documentation so that I can make sure my artists are properly compensated?

Thanks for your help with this.

I'm sure if you can provide sales figures and proof of payment to the applicable labels that will clear a lot of things up for a lot of artists

[coleco]

Not very helpfull: But if you think Z-audio are bad, you wanna try Lakeside Music Management, AKA was Keynote Music Management, AKA was Load Media, AKA any names they had before that....

That's good to know but it only reflects the importance of the relevance of of the thread topic. These people need to be addressed directly by the community.

Yeah but it dosn't help when forum moderators delete the posts that were supposed to highlight the problem (wasn't me who posted about it and don't know who deleted it if you're wondering)

[pkay]

Not very helpfull: But if you think Z-audio are bad, you wanna try Lakeside Music Management, AKA was Keynote Music Management, AKA was Load Media, AKA any names they had before that....

That's good to know but it only reflects the importance of the relevance of of the thread topic. These people need to be addressed directly by the community.

Yeah but it dosn't help when forum moderators delete the posts that were supposed to highlight the problem (wasn't me who posted about it and don't know who deleted it if you're wondering)

i had 2 of my posts deleted earlier to consolidate them into this one if thats what you're talking about

[pkay]

ZAC: The problem I'm having is that you're claiming that Dubsaw was paid in full but Dubsaw, like many other labels, artists, etc are claiming they have yet to see anything from you.

This is why we mentioned grouping together to try and see if EMI can sort this out for us. Everyone seems to still be lacking payment from Z-Audio. Dubsaw included.

If you can provide me with some sales figures and proof of payment I'll gladly address Dubsaw to compensate my artist. Having helped found Dubsaw and worked with Steve for quite a while, I know in my time there we never saw payment from you unless you're claiming to have resolved this recently?

[z audio ltd]

One last thing, Dubsaw records were accounted to in full.

No you haven't!!

I stay out of these forum war but when i read that i lol'd!!!

I got statement after like a year of asking but ain't had no doh.

Wont be replying in here again but aint letting that lie be said!

I sent you an account on the 18th of May.
You have not yet sent an invoice and that is what is required to make a payment.

[z audio ltd]

First of all I would like to apologise to anyone that has been affected by the closure of Z Audio distribution.
Over the last few years, as many people are aware, Vinyl sales have dramatically decreased.
The distribution was 7 staff strong at its height and was forced to close the department, as the sales were just not there to continue with the HUGE overheads involved in storage and distribution on vinyl records.

I tried to close the distribution to the absolute best of my ability, but the reality is, it has been near enough impossible to make sure everyone that had business with Z Audio Distribution, was left in good communication and accounted to in full.
To do this, there needs to be funds to administrate the staff and time spent to do so, but this was the reason we had to close in the first place.

I was forced to let go of all staff and now the company is just run by myself.

I would have of loved to have made sure everyone left happy, but I am now only one man and can only do so much.

Just for everyone’s information, I paid a hell of a lot of money out of my own pocket trying to keep it alive, but it was a battle I was always going to loose through the awful economic situation the UK and rest of the world is in.

We did manage to account and pay a majority of labels/artists and suppliers, but the sheer volume of doing this, again, was near enough impossible.

I feel I am only now getting back on my feet and have started to account to labels and artists that have not been looked after in the fall out.

Anyway, enough sob stories.
I would like to account and pay, if applicable, all the labels/artists that have been affected in all of this.

Please can you email me on zac@zaudio.co.uk and I will do my very best to get things sorted.
Please note that it may take a while to clear the back log, but I will create a folder with everyone’s issues and try and answer everyone as soon as humanly possible.

In response to Pkays post.

He has stated his side of the story, so I will now state mine.

Z Audio put out a compilation through EMI that contained the track by Culprate "Airline".

I originally contacted the label manager at Dubsaw records and asked him is he had any potential tracks for this compilation.
I was sent the Culprate track and we verbally agreed that this would be used for this compilation.

I was under the impression Dubsaw and Culprate were on good terms and stupidly, put off getting a contract signed for usage of this track. To my defence though, even if I would have got a signature from Dubsaw, they would have not legally had the rights to sign and would have been in exactly the same situation of breach.

Then on the 14th of June, a day after the release date, I was contacted by Gradient Audio saying that I was illegally selling the Culprate track and asked for me to stop the distribution of this product.

I said to Jason that it was impossible to stop the distribution as the physical copies had already been shipped.
After a long conversation to the States to explain myself and try to amend the damage, I offered Jason double the amount of what I agreed with Dubsaw.
Jason empathised with me and put the blame on Dubsaw.

So I sent payment and asked Jason to sign a contract for the usage.
He refused and got me to sign his own contract for this.

At this point, I thought me and Gradient were on good terms and felt like everything was sorted.

I was in such a panic to sort this out, I never saw that Gradient’s contract never actually gave Z Audio, Digital distribution rights for this track, even though he knew that both formats were in circulation.

After this initial communication happened (about 2 weeks or so), Gradient kicked up a massive fuss direct to EMI and was trying to get EMI to stop selling the product, even though me and him had talked and were on, what I thought good terms.

As soon as I heard this from my contact from EMI this was all going on, I called Jason to find out what on earth was going on.
I was told that the contract I signed, only gave Z Audio physical distribution rights and that I needed to pay a further fee to cover this right.

Looking back, I have no doubt that Gradient planned this all and knew that they would come back and milk me for the Digital rights after he sneakily got me to sign his contract that did not allow us to digitally distribute.
If he hadn't had planned to really dig his nails in, why did he not get me to sign the contract and agree on the distribution of both physical and digital at the point of contact?
He knew that both were in circulation.

Anyway, I then rang Jason and tried to sort it out AGAIN and he said he wanted further funds to grant rights for digital distribution, which I immediately paid.

Then, to take it even further, Gradient contacted me again and said we have a further breach because the product had been delivered to Last FM. (Again about 2 weeks later from second communication)

EMI provided Last FM with the product and I guess it is a slight grey area if Last FM are actually a regular DSP or in fact a radio station.
He said that he did not grant the rights for any radio play ect.

I do actually empathise with Jason’s gripe and this time, and did appreciate he contacted me, instead of going straight to EMI.

He wanted a further advance that would have been 100000 times over the funds coming in for such usage, but I told him he was frankly taking the piss and as a offer of compensation for this grey area, I was prepared to pass on 100% of the Last FM royalties and any other DSP's that might be deemed a regular digital retailer.

I never got a reply and knew it was only a matter of time until something like this would come about.

Make of it what you will, but feel I have conducted myself in the best manner possible and think Jason set out from the very start to make this situation as hard as it possibly can for Z Audio…………..


Zac @ Z Audio

zac@zaudio.co.uk

Alright bro lets break this shit down then.

1st as you stated earlier and i quote "I said to Jason that it was impossible to stop the distribution as the physical copies had already been shipped." Yes that is exactly how it happened i told you to stop and you told me you can't so after feeling sorry for how pathetic your situation is we agreed to license you use of what you could not undo. I created you a contract licensing your use of the material for physical sale. We didn't want to license the material to someone who is a known thief such as yourself but we wanted to resolve the issue. You could have ceased the use of the digital sales at any point. You paid us for a license for physical distribution and that's what we delivered to you. Since you can read well enough to write this post i know for a fact you can read well enough to interpret what our agreement said in plain print. After sending you this contract you tried to give us your own to sign and i refused because you are not to decide the terms of which you license music from someone else. I eplained this to you and further instructed you to cease any use that violated our contract as the terms of use had already been decided.

2nd Our contract specifically stated you only had the right to physical use and that any radio use whether internet or any other medium including uploading to social sites was a violation of our agreement and those rights we reserved for Gradient Audio. When i found that i could not upload Culprate's music to Soundcloud i went straight to EMI to resolve the issue since you had proven yourself to be a liar but after your phone call long distance telling me im a bad person and all that shit i felt sorry for you yet again and agreed to let you license the music digitally for another fee. I also wrote the people at EMI and told them we resolved it between us.

3rd When i found you had violated our contract yet again on terms that had been specified in plain print from the beginning i notified you and you called me again with your SOB story about how it wasn't your fault and that everyone except you was to blame including me. You told me you would contact EMI and resolve the issue by having the aquire the proper licensing. Not even 5 minutes after our phone call this is what you wrote me ...
"I have a feeling that if I contact EMI, they will just say that Last FM is in their DSP list and the responsibility will fall on me to resolve as they just distribute the content and it would have been up to me to check the DSP list.

I am happy to say that all revenue received from Last FM for “Airline” will go 100% to you with no royalty for Z Audio.

Does that sound fair?"

And this is what i wrote in response...
"No i'm Afraid it does not sound fair. Our contract specifically states that you were not to deliver the music to any form of radio. Since it seems fairly reasonable to assume that since the music was put into last.fm's system it is probably on pandora and even if it isn't this situation causes me to either to sell you the license granting permission for this use or track down every instance of our contract being broken and then contact emi regarding the matter which has already cost me a lot of time and effort.

I am still willing to resolve it with you.

My proposal to you is you buy a license granting you the right to use the material for these things since you have already allowed our contract to be broken anyway.

We are willing to grant permission for 150GBP please let me know if this is agreeable and i will have a license created.

This is a simple matter. You paid me for a limited license and your intention for the material involves full permissions. An easy resolution is to go through the proper channels to obtain the permission to cover your actions. Please let me know as soon as you can if we are in agreement."

And this was your response...
Hey Jason,

I have already paid you 3 times the amount that was already agreed.

I understand that we did not gain licence for radio ect and did not think that EMI would distribute to these type of DSP’s.

I am happy to pay you 100% of royalties for anything that looks like a grey area of DSP, ie Last FM ect, but I am not going to pay a further advance for this and think it is very unreasonable to ask for anything more than 100% of this/these royalties.

I have been very communicative and willing to straighten things out, but think your taking it 1 step to far.

And this was my response...
"No you broke our contract and if you can't see that it's your responsibility to make it right then i will have to take this up with EMI.

I have been nothing but nice to you. I gave it a lot of thought and this is the most reasonable solution. Please just make things right. I simply cannot grant you permission without you paying for it because that is what is fair to the artist.

I don't appreciate the way you talk to me Zac. I did not violate our contract. I have done everything i said i would. You have repeatedly violated our agreement and tried to down play it every time.

The bottom line is we'll be right back here again when i discover another radio site (And i will)

Just pay us for a full license. Please
And your agreed amount ill remind you was with a thief that stole Culprate's music. We made no such agreement so you have paid exactly what you agreed to pay with us and not a penny more."

And this was your response...
"You show no empathy to me what so ever and think you were very unreasonable to ask for a further licence for the digital distribution in the way you did.

I have no doubt you are trying to squeeze me for every single penny possible and this couldn’t be clearer.
You are not showing any human element of understanding and just finding loop holes in our contracts (that you have created) to kick a man while he is done.
If that’s what you were setting out to do, you have done a fantastic job.

If you were trying to resolve this matter with me as reasonably as possible, you would have asked for the digital and physical licence when we first spoke.
I think you were very sneaky to get me to sign a contract that only granted me the physical rights for when the physical and digital were distributed and in retailers which you clearly knew.

And then to contact EMI after I had an hour conversation on the phone to talk sensibly was just a kick in the balls.

So I’m sorry if my tone sounds annoyed, but frankly you’re taking the piss.

I have said that I am happy to pay you 100% of all royalties outside of the grey area DSP’s and can provide you with the original statements from EMI, so you can see exactly what has been received for the album.

I want to keeps things as clean as possible, but Jason, just stop and think what your doing, it’s not just not reasonable."


So here is what i have to say to you Z Audio in public for everyone to decide their own opinion of...

Your actions from day one were illegal, You stole from my friend, and you lied to me repeatedly when i was trying to be fair. If that wasn't bad enough you honestly think it's ok to take our personal business between us and lay it out for all to see using my real name in a public place. When you refer to your story as a "SOB" story you couldn't be more dead on. You are whining about something that is ALL your fault. You are a thief and so is Dubsaw. There is plenty of people out there that have been burned by your actions and if PKay wants to hear their stories it has nothing to do with me. I have not responded to your last email because instead of handling things professionally you would rather take the low road and name call and inflame the situation.

The bottom line is Gradient Audio LLC, Culprate, & Pkay all were not happy to license anything to you and only did so because it was what would resolve the situation without any further problem. It's not up to us to make you read any contract and it is not up to use to compensate for your mistakes.

For the record we don't really want to give you right to use the material for radio because that was reserved for us but since you did so anyway it seems only fair you should have to pay for it whether or not the price equals what you'll profit as you have caused damages that cannot be undone. I am begging you in public as i have already too many times before. PLEASE PAY US FOR THE USE OF THE SONG AS REQUIRED BY YOUR ACTIONS! I'm asking you in front of everyone since you couldn't keep it private. All we want is for you to pay us for the license for the right to use it or i'll have no choice but to divulge all our communications to EMI and there is no doubt that those communications not only contain repeated acknowledgement of your violation of our agreement but also reflect our discontent with your use and your childish personal responses that have nothing to do with what needs to happen to resolve the situation. Considering you can resolve this between us for 150GBP i doubt EMI is going to be happy that you turned that offer down considering as you stated in your previous communication "I have a feeling that if I contact EMI, they will just say that Last FM is in their DSP list and the responsibility will fall on me to resolve as they just distribute the content and it would have been up to me to check the DSP list."

Finally, "Last.fm" is NOT a DSP They DO NOT sell music they connect people looking to buy the music to sites where it is available which is exactly what happens when you click buy now on their site while listening to "Airline".

You are really making something out of nothing not me. You broke the law. You violated the intellectual rights of a friend of mine and music i am specifically responsible for protecting the future of.

You have also been caught using other people's music on the same release that you did not license. To put it plainly... your actions are that of a thief and i cannot say whether that speaks to your personal character because i do not personally know you i can say with 100% certainty that you stole from us and others i consider to be my friends.

For the record, Pkay was the one that addressed this issue in public and started publicly addressing names involved.
Take it up with him if you have a problem.

Anyway, I have wasted enough time on this and I have said all I have to say on the matter.

If you feel that I have been a thief, then so be it, but I know that is not the reality.

You have got to do what you have to do, but you won't be getting another penny from Z Audio through advances.

All the best.

[Ferryman]

Sad times.

[GradientAudio]

Zac are you serious? Your the one that had to use my fucking personal name in this thread. It's just one more example of how you lie and say it's someone else. You can bet either you'll be paying us on sept 15 just like your email in my inbox from you says you will or i'm going to be the most annoying problem EMI has dealt with yet. I'll remind you that i've already been in talks with them and i'm not going away. But while were here... It's laughable to see you in a public thread saying your going to punish a artist and my label by not paying for damages you caused because you don't like how your being asked. It's not up to you whether or not you pay because you were asked nicely enough. You have to pay because it's the law and furthermore if you don't... well your a douche if you don't. I also will be expecting statements very soon as well. Call me again sometime Zac what a friendly convo we'll have i bet. Oh yeah and by the way.... Stealing unauthorized music from any artist and releasing it for sale or free in any form without express consent from the legal owners is piracy. That by would make you a THIEF.

[__________]

Good to see its still all about the music.

If you've got money/personal beef you should take it up in private. Lots of artists and labels have trouble getting paid, but most of them don't air their problems in public.

[grillis]

[GradientAudio]

Good to see its still all about the music.

If you've got money/personal beef you should take it up in private. Lots of artists and labels have trouble getting paid, but most of them don't air their problems in public.

It is about the music unfortunately because of the damage Z-Audio has caused that's the only way to compensate for what happened is for them to pay for it. Zac has a long history of screwing people and denying it. This was a private matter until he dragged it out into public yesterday. If you don't feel like you should know any of this information then forget what you've read. PKay was asking for people to come forward with their own stories and Zac decided to make this about me and him.

Labels don't have trouble getting paid in my experience, It's the artist that does and they deserve every bit of money they can get for the work they put into their music. It takes a lot of time for most people and it can feel rather unrewarding to know someone else made money off you while you made nothing. I don't mean you any disrespect but i don't think you understand what the problem is.

[pete_bubonic]

Well I'm locking this thread, no good will come from airing the laundry like this.