Phil,
I only have a few minutes, but the short answer is YES. It is part of the reasons it is so hard to even break even in the music industry. It costs approximately $4.5 MILLION dollars to launch a new project. And yes that all has to be paid back before the artist/writers or anyone is really paid back. Everything is based on SALES. That is why they have to have multiple income streams.
A staff writer may have had two or three publishing deals before they even get something that pays back money. And those will have to be paid back if the songs had anything to do with that publisher. For instance, if some publisher they signed with 5-6-7 or more years ago, still has publishing on that song, even though they moved on, that song will still have to be paid off years later.
My friend Paul Jefferson, just found out he was having to START Over again on a song, YOU'RE NOT MY GOD" that he wrote twenty years ago with Keith Urban. Kieth released it on an album a couple years ago, and Paul had to track down where the publishing was. The original company he was with had to sell out, so it had gone through a few more companies. And he has to start over again.
Artists are the same thing. They owe so much money they usually will never pay that back. They have to have their "sophomore" albums (second) or even the Junior albums (third) with successful singles on them before they start to earn back their advances.
The more you know about the music industry.
MAB
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