"In the last couple of weeks, two of the world's five major record labels have announced plans to change the way they pay their artists. It's no coincidence that the industry is also being investigated by California lawmakers. For years, musicians have complained that they're not paid what they're owed under their contracts, and a cottage industry of accountants and attorneys now earns its living extracting royalty money from record labels. Royalties are the buck or two the artists are supposed to get for each CD sold. From the Marketplace Business of Entertainment Desk, Christian Bordal takes a look at the strange world of royalty auditing."

Marketplace keeps touching on issues I've discussed in this space in the past, so here's another bit on today's show that discusses the mess that is royalty accounting in the music industry.  Is it all an honest mistake, as indicated by industry types, or is it "institutional thievery" that takes advantage of the expense of performing royalty audits to keep the artists money out of their hands?  The industry claims that "reputable accounting firms" - a term which brings a chuckle from the host - audit the industries books, and it's just not possible for the labels to get away with anything on the scale being alleged.  Are the labels starting to reform their own systems out of the goodness of their hearts, or out of a fear of government probing?  The section in question starts at 21:30ish.