Dec. 8, 2025

No Contract. No Payouts. No Access. What Now?

No Contract. No Payouts. No Access. What Now?
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No Contract. No Payouts. No Access. What Now?

Today’s episode of the Music Business Mewsletter with Matthew Rix is heartbreaking. Bob the drummer and unofficial manager of a long-running Swiss punk band reached out with a situation that feels like every independent artist’s nightmare. Here’s what...

Today’s episode of the Music Business Mewsletter with Matthew Rix is heartbreaking.
Bob the drummer and unofficial manager of a long-running Swiss punk band reached out with a situation that feels like every independent artist’s nightmare.
Here’s what happened:
In 2006, they released their album One Day More Walls under a small Swiss label. It was a simple delivery deal: the band paid for the recording, the label paid for the CDs—no digital contract. No streaming. No promises beyond physical distribution.
Then life happened.
Bob became seriously ill. The band split. And years passed.
Fast-forward to today:
• Record Label went bankrupt
• The owner vanished from the scene
• Their music somehow ended up on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube
• The Orchard (a Sony subsidiary) is distributing the music without authorization 
• The band has never received a cent
• They can’t access their artist profiles
• They can’t update anything
• They can’t upload new music
• And on top of all that their singer and Bob’s best friend of 40 years, Timo, passed away in 2023
Bob is trying to preserve their legacy.
Instead, he ran straight into a wall of corporate silence.
The Orchard told him to “contact the original label,” even though that label hasn’t existed in over a decade.
So he asked the question every independent artist fears:
“What do I do when my label is gone, my rights are taken, and I can’t afford an attorney?”
In this episode, I break down:
-What happens when a label collapses
-How rights get transferred without artists knowing
-Why distributors like The Orchard can freeze you out
-What artists can do when they can’t access their catalog
-How to reclaim your digital presence
-And the REALISTIC path forward when you can’t fight legally
If you’ve ever released music under a small label — or wondered who actually “owns” your songs online you need to hear this one.
Got a story or question?
Go to https://MatthewRix.com the more details you include, the better I can help.
#musicbusiness #musicindustry #theorchardmusic #punkband #matthewrix


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WEBVTT

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Hey, this is Matthew Ricks, and today on the Music

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Business newsletter, we have an email from a drummer in

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Switzerland who basically his music's being distributed without his permission,

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and so we're gonna try to help him out and

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see what we can do. But if you have a

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question on the music industry that you'd like for me

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to answer, just go to Matthewicks dot com click submit

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your question, give me as many details as possible, and

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we'll answer it here on the channel. But now for

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the email, he says, Hey, Matthew, my name is Well, Okay, Well,

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I gotta I gotta give a shout out to my

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guy right here. He tells me his name, But then

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he says, but you can call me Bob, like you know.

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That's why I love drummers, That's why I love the Swiss,

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That's why I love punk bands like you get it.

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You get it, my guy, you get it, We say

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Bob to protect the innocent. You know, don' w at

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anybody getting in trouble for having an email right on

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this channel. Anyways, let's continue. He says, I'm the drummer

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and the unofficial manager for a Swiss punk band based

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in Basil, Switzerland, Basel Basil, He says, I came across

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your YouTube channel recently and ended up binge watching a

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ton of your videos. Well, thank you for that, and

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you might be the first person from Switzerland to watch

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these videos on YouTube. So buy yourself a coffee as

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a congratulations. He says. You seem to be the right

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person to reach out to because what I'm dealing with

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is complicated and honestly, it's been weighing on me for years.

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Well we're going to try to help you here, and

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I hate that it's been going on for years, and

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I appreciate you emailing, he says. Let me give you

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some background. My band started in nineteen ninety six and

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we were active until around two thousand and six, two

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thousand and seven. We played punk, influenced by bands like

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Bad Religion, No Effects and that whole era of melodic

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skate punk that was. And now the the crust punks

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are gonna come after me and say I'm wrong or

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I'm a poser or whatever. But the time that you

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were in a punk band mid nineties through the mid

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two thousands, that was peak punk music right there. Love

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Bad Religion, Love Bad Religion, Actually, I've worked with those

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guys and that band while back, great guys. No Effects

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wasn't really my thing, but I was. But I will

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always appreciate what they did for music. But Rancid's the goat.

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You don't mention Ransid here, but in that timeframe, your

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Rancid was Rancid was they were, They were rocking out.

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But you were probably big into MxPx. Probably, yeah, you're

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probably really big in MxPx at this point. That was

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that was peak MxPx era, Lagwagon, Bouncing Souls, all this stuff.

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Maybe Bouncing Souls they might have been a little too

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poppy for you, but sorry, geeking out on punk rock,

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mid nineties punk rock right now. He says. In two

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thousand and six, we released an album called One Day

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More Walls under a Swiss record label. The deal we

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had with them was a delivery deal. Now, if you

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don't know what a delivery deal is, my guy here

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explains it. He says, we paid for the recording, mixing,

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and mastering. We owned the red Book masters. They paid

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for the physical CDs to be manufactured and gave us

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a few dozen copies for promo. So we don't know

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really what the deal terms were, which is not really

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the point of this email. But we don't know if

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it was a fifty to fifty deal, which you never do.

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But they paid for everything, they paid to record mix

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master it. They gave this record label the masters to distribute.

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They give them back a few dozen for promo right

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then and there. Doesn't sound like a great deal, But

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that's not the point of this email, he says. In

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February two thousand and seven, everything changed. I became very

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I had fiberum myalgic my algia, fiber myalgia, and I

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had to stop drumming. I had a friend who went

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through that and it is not a good time at all.

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So I can understand why you had to stop drumming.

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And I mean, you know, you're signed, you're putting out

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an album, and then you get hit with hell stuff.

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It's you know, it's one of those one that you know,

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like we made it and then you have to stop.

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And I hate that for you, but he says. The

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band slowly split up after that. He says, I stepped

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away from music completely rightfully. So man, you got to

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take care of your health. You got to take care

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of you, he says, and he stepped away for about

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a decade, he didn't even want to look at a

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drum kit. Well, no, because that was like the dream,

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and you had the dream at your doorstep. You were

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signed to a label, regardless of what the deal was.

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You had a deal, you made an album, and then

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you have to shut it all down because of your health.

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I understand why you didn't look at a drum kid,

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he says. Fast forward to twenty eighteen. I started getting

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better physically, picked up the sticks again, joined a few bands.

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Now before we dive into anything else in this email,

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I know a lot of times I give artists like

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a really hard time for some of the things they

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do or say, or propose and emails. But the fact

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that you stepped away for eleven years because of your health.

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You had to, you had no choice. And then you

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came back and you discovered your love for drumming, and

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you didn't pity yourself. You didn't say you were too old,

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you you didn't do any of that. Like, you got

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right back to where you were. I think that's a

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testament to your strength as a person. I just want

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to I just want to take this moment to commend

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you for that, he says. I joined a few bands

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and rediscovered how much drumming meant to me. Very good,

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he says. Then, in twenty twenty three, we did a

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one off reunion show for our friend's birthday after seven

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teen years apart. I just want to know who this

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friend is that can get a band to reunite after

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seventeen years, Like that guy must that guy must have

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some pictures or something, because I know bands who you know,

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there's not enough money in the world to get them

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to reunite. It doesn't sound like you guys broke up

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on bad terms, but still after seventeen years, people just

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kind of like lose that identity, and especially in the

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punk world, you'll have guys who like, well, that's not

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me anymore, man, you know, because they kind of I

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got sold out, he says. It felt incredible. We all

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agreed we try to play more shows together, but life

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got in the way. A month later, on October seventeen,

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twenty twenty three, our singer, guitarist and my best friend

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of forty years, Timu Timo, passed away. Suddenly I am

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sorry for your loss. This is this is a story

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of just of constant like two step forward, one step back,

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two step forward, one And the reason why I like

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this email so much is because, as I started the

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Music Business newsletter was because whatever you're going through, not

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only I hope to try to help you get some

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answers or help you dig through the weeds, but your

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story gets to help other people as well. You've had

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a couple of setbacks. When things get going, you have

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a couple of setbacks, and just kept persevering like that is.

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That's a testament to you, man. But I am sorry

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for your loss, he says. After this happened, I felt

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this huge push to preserve our music, our history and

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everything we built. That's when I started digging into our

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catalog online and realized something was seriously wrong. Dunt dun dum,

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he says. Our music was on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, everywhere,

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but we never started a distribution deal, We never authorized it,

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we never received a single sense and the name showing

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up on copyright strikes the orchard owned by Sony. He says.

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I even got a copyright strike on YouTube for uploading

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our own songs. That's got to be a kick in

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the pants there. Humh bob, he says. Imagine that. Yeah,

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he says, then by pure chance, I ran into Martin

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Schrader from Leech Retta, who used to work with the

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record label. He told me the label went bankrupt around

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twenty twelve and that the owner basically disappeared. A lot

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of the Swiss punk bands were left stranded with no

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communication and no payoffs. That I mean, I think we Yeah,

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we were in an email a couple of weeks ago

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from an artist who his hip hop label just closed overnight.

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They didn't distribute any music, but they just like like, hey,

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we'll call you tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes. What it

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looks like to me from what this email says, took

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the masters and ran. That's what it looks like, and

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a lot of bands were stranded with no communication and

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no payoffs. Yep, yep, that sounds about right, he says.

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For the past two years, I've been trying to contact

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the Orchard. I wrote them politely, explain the situation, Explain

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Timu's death, explain the label bankruptcy. And all they said

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was contact the original label owner, he says, which I've

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already tried. No answer, no trace of him anywhere. No

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one in the punk scene has heard from him in

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over a decade. Yikes. So here's the situation. He says,

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we never signed a digital distribution deal. We never approved

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Orchard to distribute our music. We never received any money

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for physical or digital sales. We cannot access the artist

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pages on Spotify or iTunes. We can't update our band

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bio or upload new music. He says, We've invested money

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into the album ourselves. We're being told to talk to

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the label that no longer exists. You never signed a

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distribution deal. We never Okay, So your first your first

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bullet point here is that you never signed a distribution deal.

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What you can do this is gonna be a little

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bit of a rabbit hole, But what you can do

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without getting a lawyer involved, is you need to contact

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I want to contact Orchard. I want to contact Orchard

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at all, because the Orchard doesn't know who you are.

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They don't care to know who you are. Who knows

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how long they've been working with this label. Because here

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is if I was guessing, now, don't take this as fast,

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but if I'm just looking at this from thirty thousand

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feet up in the air, the owner of the label

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disappeared and then just got a distribution deal with one

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of these DSPs and just distributed your music and everybody

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else's music, and good luck finding him. He could be

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you know, he could be in France right now. So

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what I would do is I would find you know,

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like I know, on Spotify under an artist page, you

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can report that artist. I would I would probably start there.

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I would try to find the lawyers or maybe it's

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legal at Spotify or legal at Apple dot com or

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something like that. That would be your second option. I

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would start the first one by reporting it on the

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artist page. Second second, what I would do is I

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would try to find legal for all these DSPs and

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I would contact them as the owner of the band.

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They don't care about the death of your lead singer, unfortunately,

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they don't care about that. They don't care about what

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you went through. What they care about is you not

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suing them, Okay, So I would put an email in

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very plain terms that this is being released unauthorized, and

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if you have a copy of the contract you could

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offer that as there's no agreement here for digital distribution

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you guys actually right now, because without an agreement, the

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label is doing something so incredibly illegal right now, and

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by a byproduct, these DSPs are as well. But they

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all the agreements is they have no liability for whatever

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for you put out there. But you can still try

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to harass them. You can still try to email them

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every day. I mean I would email them every day

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if I was you, Like every day. If you can

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get an email a dresser for somebody, I will give

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you a tip. LinkedIn's a good place to find this stuff.

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But I'd email him every day until somebody responds. He says,

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we never approved the Orchard distribute our music. No, because

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the organ It's not like the Orchard just like found

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your music somewhere and just put it out. Somebody is

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in agreement with the Orchard to put your music out. Probably,

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if I was guessing, I would say you're former label president.

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He says, we never received any money for physical or

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digital sales. Yeah, that checks, and you're probably not. He says,

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we cannot access the artist page on Spotify or iTunes, No,

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because you're not You're not the artist. Like whoever set

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this up is. He says, we can't update our bio

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or upload new music. You should be able to upload

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new music without a problem. You just have to. I mean,

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you can't go through the Orchard, but you should be

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able to go through a tune CORB, CD Baby, just

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tro Kid, whatever, and be able to upload your music

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and it would appear there. He says, we're being told

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to talk to a label that no longer exists. Well, yeah,

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because they're not gonna they don't know who you are.

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He says, we want to release our first album again

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through CD baby, but our artists name and pages are

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already taken, so I'd go ahead and release it. You're

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not gonna have access to the artist page. I would

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if if it's if you're gonna plan on releasing the

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same album that this label has, I would change the

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album cover, maybe change the track listing around, because he

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could come in and be like, oh, they're unauthorizing, you know,

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an unauthorized distributing of music. So try to get around

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that if the best you can. While you're reporting the

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other album, while you're contacting legal, He says, the Orchard

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hasn't shown a shred of interest in helping us, so

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they're not going to like, I don't care. It's not

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the Orchard. It could be tune Core, it could be

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distr Kid, it could be CD baby. They don't know

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who you are. They don't care to know who you are,

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and you're not big enough for them to worry about.

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They know you're not gonna sue. They know that even

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if you took to Instagram or x or Facebook and

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started railing, it's not gonna hurt them. He says. Uh.

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He says, at this point, I see it as plain theft.

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It is plain theft, but it's not theft from the orchard.

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It's theft from whoever puts your album out, who's ever

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claimed to be the owner of your music. He says,

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I'm sorry if my tone sounds angry. Oh you Swiss,

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your son. I always love working with like people from

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Switzerland or Norway because you'll be like, hey, yeah, we're

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going to do blah blah blah blah blah, and then

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the tour is gonna come there and we need you

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guys to do da da da da da, and they're like,

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we will not do that. It's like they you rejected

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me in the nicest way possible. That is my Nordic

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accent right there, and I'm Polish. That's not Nordic, but

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it's close enough. He says. It's just been sixteen years

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of silence and after losing Timo preserving our music suddenly

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means more than ever. Of course, it's a time capsule

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of what you guys did together as a band. That sucks.

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He says, I don't have the money for an attorney,

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which is why I'm turning to you. Well, I'm glad,

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he says. What would you do in a situation like this?

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What's the smartest way forward? When a label collapses, a

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distributor ignores you, and your bandmate and best friend is gone.

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It's a lot of question, he goes, what do you

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do when a label collapses? Well, in this situation, I

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mean typically when a label, when a label full, you

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00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:08.880
will have you might have a good label. When they close,

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they pulled the masters, and then you can buy them

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back from them because they're just trying to settle their debts.

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A terrible label closes, has your music still out there

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because they're trying to make as much money as possible,

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and then it jams you up. A corrupt label is

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when the label closes, the owner disappears, and your music

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magically appears online and you don't know how your distributor

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ignoring you. They're going to ignore you. They don't know

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who you are, and your bandmate and best friend is gone.

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I hate that for you. I that sucks. I've lost

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some friends over the years, and I can't imagine somebody

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have forty years that I did music with and we

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signed a deal and it was less against the world.

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And if you know anything about punk, if you don't

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know anything about punk music, punk musicians really have. I

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think one of the best mindsets in music, where it's

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like us versus everybody, and so your bandmates are your brothers,

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and so to lose a lose a brother's that's that's huge, man.

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So what I would do. What I would do is

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I'd go to every I'd go to Spotify, I'd go

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to iTunes, I'd go to Amazon Music. I would report

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the album. I should tell you why you want to

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report it now in this email you did include links.

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So I'm going to go ahead and start the reporting

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process because I reported it to Spotify for you under

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the artist page. But I would do that every day.

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I'd get the bandmates to do it. I would do

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it with iTunes, I would do it with Amazon. I

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would find anybody that's with legal with Spotify iTunes, because

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here's what you need. You need one you need Spotify,

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you need Amazon, you need one of these DSPs to

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pull the album because of copyright infringement or unauthorized release

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one of them, because that'll set the whole thing in motion. Then,

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because Orchard and all of them, I don't care if

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00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:22.000
it's Orchard, Tune, Core, Distro, kid dit or whatever. They

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don't want to be sued. They don't want to go

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through the process of litigation or mediation or whatever. So

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if one DSP pulls it because of unauthorized use, it

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probably will pull it everywhere because Orchards just gonna They

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don't want to be involved in a mess, especially with

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a small band. So I would make every day, I

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would send an email and I would report it every

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day and I would list once again, don't talk about

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your singer's death. It's as plain. Keep the emotions out

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of it. And this is the facts. The facts are,

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this is an unauthorized use of our music. We have

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never signed this agreement. Here is our you know, here's

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our masters, here's our contract, here's when we made the album.

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Whatever you guys need, I can prove to you this

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is not us. And I would say, don't tell me

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you can't afford a lawyer, none of that. I would

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straight up say you have sixty days to you know,

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respond to us, get back to us, or we will

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take it to the next level. Don't say what the

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next level is. Let their imagination run wild. But that's

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what I would do. I would then release your album.

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If it's the same album cover, change the album cover,

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maybe change the track listening. If it's the same album

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that's being an unauthorized release. I would guarantee right now,

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if I was in Vegas and we were we're betting,

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I would say, your former president of your label, wherever

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he's at in the world, has a distribution deal and

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he's just making whatever money he can behind your back,

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and good luck getting it. Good luck making money, good

345
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luck getting paid because you can't find them. So that's

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what I would do. I would go your I wouldn't

347
00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:17.720
even worry about Orchard anymore. They're not gonna they don't care,

348
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doesn't matter. It's not even like I said, it's not

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even Orchard, any of these distributors. They're not gonna do anything.

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You gotta go. You got to hit this whe where

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00:21:26.599 --> 00:21:30.720
it hurts. But Bob from Basil, Switzerland, I dude, I

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want to commend you for your great your your strength.

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I know you've had some setbacks, You've persevered, and this

354
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is just the next hurdle. It's like it's like, you know,

355
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:45.640
it's when I read this email, it was get a

356
00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:49.359
record deal, I get sick band reunites, my best friend

357
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passes away. Want to put his music out there to

358
00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:55.279
keep the memory going. It's already out there. We don't

359
00:21:55.319 --> 00:21:57.480
know how we're not getting paid. It's just like, you know,

360
00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:00.160
two steps forward, one step back. But I love of

361
00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:05.079
your determination and your grid. Be proud of yourself that

362
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you you've stood strong through all of this, because most

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people would have caved in two thousand and seven. Most

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people would have given up. Most people would have given

365
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up in two thousand and seven and not even gotten

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to this point to email me. So hit us up

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with an email, let us know what's the latest. And

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if you have an update, did you want to share

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with the world in the classroom, please do so. And

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if you have a question on the music industry that

371
00:22:31.480 --> 00:22:33.160
you'd like for me to answer, just go to Matthew

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00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:36.079
Ricks dot com click submit your question, give me as

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many details as possible, and you can be like Bob

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from Basel, Switzerland. But until next time, I will talk

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to you later.