Airwave's Gofund Me to secure right to his music

[Jetflag]

Very aggressive tone coming from you. That's rare.

Where's the aggression precisely? Especially with me ending on a note of sympathy for the man's situation?

I think he wants full intellectual rights to his old tracks. I remember Yoogie van Bellen just secured the rights to his old tracks but it took a long time for him to secure them. Like I said some of old releases have been taken off beatport and download charts so therefore his full entire discography is not listed. Well, he may resell them on vinyl and cd I think and have been repressed as well.

Then that is something he should specify... right now all he does is ask for money, so the tracks are his again, claim its beneficial for me a listner somehow because it enables him to make new music.. sorry but that logic is simply lost on me.

If he where to make promises of a hardware re-release (something i might potentially be invested in) then at the very least he would have specified whats in it for me as an invester.

40000 is probably for his kids as well which is understandable. C'mon as a father you should understand.

Things are unclear to me and as such i'm skeptical on spending money on this.. Thats not me being agressive, thats me raising an eyebrown and excersising common sense especially as a Father who has to take care of his own family in the mids of ridiciuously high food, fuel, and general cost of living prices.

Also father I would never ask money from you, or Laurent for that matter to correct a past (alleged) mistake of a signed contract...I would at best simply beg for money to support my family if the situation where that dire...not to get owner ship back of something.

I believe, you can ask for a refund.

We believe it's our responsibility to protect your kindness—by protecting your donation. If you're a donor and would like a refund for a donation, tip, or believe there has been an unauthorized charge, our team can help.

I would much rather have Laurent, an individual I tend to trust, give me his word then corporate talk of a company with a 1.4 star on Trustpilot m8. Gofundme is notorious for its financial scamming.

however, If Laurent gives me his own word aswell as laying out specifically what the benefits to me as an investor are, I'll reconsider.

 

[trancedanne]

Honestly Airwave could set up a Patreon and share production tutorials, hardware tutorials etc. The man surely is a bank of Trance production knowledge. It would be very useful for anyone trying to get into production and replicate the old sounds, and also some financial support too. But just my two cents

Yeah there is endless of stuff he could do, share old project files, presets and percussions from all of his older tracks & so on.

 

[Magdelayna]

Yeah there is endless of stuff he could do, share old project files, presets and percussions from all of his older tracks & so on.

He does sell a huge sample pack with all his sounds.

Tbh he should gig all the time,with the sheer back catalogue of classics he has,he could do a different set everytime. Matt Darey and Lange do it,playing their old tracks. Although ive heard that he doesnt want to do it.....

 

[Electronlyman]

He has already done Patreon stuff etc.

Airwave has been screwed over big time, I remember there is a story with a stolen album...
@Progrez probably could share more details on that story.


As to my own experience with the man.

Laurent once sent me a track in lossless format, after I told him I could not find it in any stores.
He spent days looking for it in his massive archive and gave it to me for free.
That's something I wasn't expecting.

Also from other people's stories, I know he's a very kind person and possibly that's one of the reasons why certain people screwed him over...


Personally I don't care if I get something back from this, I support him to regain the rights to his work.
He is a legend and I'm glad to help if I can.. I've enjoyed years of high quality content from him and in my opinion he has gotten back way too little,
for his massive input into the scene..

 

[Electronlyman]

He does sell a huge sample pack with all his sounds.

Tbh he should gig all the time,with the sheer back catalogue of classics he has,he could do a different set everytime. Matt Darey and Lange do it,playing their old tracks. Although ive heard that he doesnt want to do it.....

Exactly, I've bought that myself a few months back.

 

[Electronlyman]

Tbh he should gig all the time,with the sheer back catalogue of classics he has,he could do a different set everytime. Matt Darey and Lange do it,playing their old tracks. Although ive heard that he doesnt want to do it.....

This is what he wrote under one of my posts about his unreleased track in 2019.
It could explain a little, why he doesn't quite like to come back to playing stuff from the past.

"My Dear Friends, first of all, my very best wishes once again for 2020. May it be rich in good things happening to you. I would like to address this concern that you have about the unreleased tracks, the decisions I made and which I fully stand behind. The track in question was made in 2015 with Ferry Tayle and is one I played every now and then because it is indeed a track that was suitable for trance oriented sets and because I found it just great for that time and suitable above all. The reason why it never got released is something completely different and it is by no means part of the album. The reason why we flushed another dozen tracks in one pass is because in 2017, showing severe signs of emotional exhaustion due to the state of the circuit I was into, getting this music out was actually revealing toxic to my mental health due to all consequences. I understand that many people got shocked by hearing this information. It was a general feel I had towards the Trance scene in its entirety as I felt I was moving towards a genre/scene that wasn't reflecting my personal taste and that was too restrictive in terms of innovation and changes. The idea of even listening to some of these tracks today is also linked to very very bad memories of that period. It's all very personal matters but what you need to know is that I felt like moving away from my personal goals and by releasing music I wasn't fully supporting, I'd be lying to myself, and even worse, to the all of you. There's not enough musicality in this genre called Trance nowadays imo, and despite my efforts to change the course of things between 2012 and 2017, =I was hitting a wall of misunderstanding and ignorance by the majority of the trance fans and the business people, who would see this as a second class type of art, leaving me a very bad self esteem, and a complete loss of self confidence after 5 years trying to follow my heart only. Worse, I was being asked by some people around to make music I was horrified to even hear. When my gf and I met, she was literally taking the pieces of my self esteem together like a broken vase on the floor. Because of the way the Trance scene is now going. Sometimes when an entire group of people deciding of your future is indirectly working against your goals and ambitions as a musician, you have to do something about it. This is why I want to distance myself from the actual trance scene, but I WILL NEVER turn my back on my past and some of the music that I made. It's just that even that doesn't find its space in a scene that's become to tiny for ambitions. I call it my music, reflection of my heart and soul and something I stand fully behind. If it doesn't suit a scene, well, I can let go of it, I'm not even gutted, I'm just being grateful for whoever supports my music old or new in 2020. I'll always fully support all the things I have done and released. I hope it made it clear for you now. I'm very thankful for all the love we got in 2019 and I'm finally feeling like I can spread the wings of my art entirely. I hope I can rely on some people's support with the stuff I'm making right now, but it should never be a necessity to get majority support to survive. That my friends, is called politics, which I cannot stand behind at all. Thank you so much for being there, hoping that you will understand and will be happy with my future music. Sending love to you all."

 

[Enlusion]

I'm deeply sorry to read all the things in this topic. I wanted a remix from Airwave for my label once, and Laurent was happy to do it, got the stems and almost started the project, but then his manager came in and wanted to make money out of his talent. It was a strict decline from me as I was already aware that Laurent would get only a fraction of that money (if anything at all!).

Even though I don't see the point of returning the rights to his music, I wish him nothing but good luck and hopefully he will finally meet the right people.

 

[delphion]

I see theres quite a lot of backlash about this!

Ive been screwed over by labels before,high threshold payments means they keep the money from sales and you never see it...

Ive learnt the lesson and ditched the labels,trying to maximise potential from youtube revenue,distribution,bandcamp etc....

you can ask them to lower the treshold. Always payed every cent to me when I asked any label to pay the royalties. How dont you know this.

About the airwave gofund me, why would fans pay for him to get rights back to his music? What those fans will get? Nothing? And he didnt even contact the label before gofund? This all sounds very shady and strange, as Sean tyas and activa pointed out on FB

edit: Aah yeah now its much clearer he answered some of those questions

 

[No Return]

40k in euros is a monster amount. Is this what the label told him is required? I am hoping he checks they will even agree with this, has he done this? I would support him a little anyway, he deserves it for all the music he gave me.

 

[Ar7]

40k in euros is a monster amount. Is this what the label told him is required? I am hoping he checks they will even agree with this, has he done this? I would support him a little anyway, he deserves it for all the music he gave me.

Actually, to me it seems a very small amount when one compares his contribution to the trance scene. The sad part is that this is a fair reflection of how small the trance scene is. The entire back catalog of one of the most talented and prolific artists presumably costs less than a handful of VIP tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.

This is either one of the clearest indications that trance is dead and never coming back….or a very good investment opportunity to be buying the rights to classic trance catalogs.

 

[Archon]

Actually, to me it seems a very small amount when one compares his contribution to the trance scene. The sad part is that this is a fair reflection of how small the trance scene is. The entire back catalog of one of the most talented and prolific artists presumably costs less than a handful of VIP tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.

This is either one of the clearest indications that trance is dead and never coming back….or a very good investment opportunity to be buying the rights to classic trance catalogs.

Back in the glory days he could get that for a couple of vinyl releases.

 

[TRANCEBLASTER]

Back in the glory days he could get that for a couple of vinyl releases.

well... who knows? I had (with a friend) a small vinyl only label with 3 releases in 2012-2013 .. in those times we have paid in the manufacture 5,60€ for a piece of 12'' (generic paper black sleeve + plastic sleeve in the price) .. the average price for a 12'' record back then was 8 - 12€ .. so we have sold ours for 9€ .. we had no real sleeve for the record, no graphic, no distribution, we have not registered any copyrights ... so whithout investing in any of these things we have made 3,40€ on a single record, if you go with the artist 50:50 its only 1,70 for a record.. ofc this was no bussiness thing from our side, just fun and entusiasm ... but I wonder if there was good money from vinyl sales back in the days.. maybe only our deal with the manufacture was not the best

 

[Archon]

well... who knows? I had (with a friend) a small vinyl only label with 3 releases in 2012-2013 .. in those times we have paid in the manufacture 5,60€ for a piece of 12'' (generic paper black sleeve + plastic sleeve in the price) .. the average price for a 12'' record back then was 8 - 12€ .. so we have sold ours for 9€ .. we had no real sleeve for the record, no graphic, no distribution, we have not registered any copyrights ... so whithout investing in any of these things we have made 3,40€ on a single record, if you go with the artist 50:50 its only 1,70 for a record.. ofc this was no bussiness thing from our side, just fun and entusiasm ... but I wonder if there was good money from vinyl sales back in the days.. maybe only our deal with the manufacture was not the best

I remember Steve Helstrip (The Thrillseekers) talking about something along the lines of he accepted a release deal for 10000 $, and soon after he got an offer for 4-8 times more. Don't quote me, bit hazy on the details. The numbers seemed huge to be honest, was very hard to believe that.

 

[TRANCEBLASTER]

I remember Steve Helstrip (The Thrillseekers) talking about something along the lines of he accepted a release deal for 10000 $, and soon after he got an offer for 4-8 times more. Don't quote me, bit hazy on the details. The numbers seemed huge to be honest, was very hard to believe that.

that must be some major label deal with selling all the rights of a track, maybe 'Synaesthesia'? it was released under 'Universal' so its possible ...

edit: looking at Airwave's discography at discogs, his records were not licensed by other labels, or even into other countries.. strictly 'Bonzai'.. so he never had any big major deal.. I think he only could have some good money from gigs and remixes.. but we already know thats also not true

 

[Uplifted]

So Laurent just posted this:

Dear friends,

I’m writing this as I’m in the middle of nowhere in the countryside reflecting on things while spending a bit of time with my family.
Thank you for your incredible support of the past few days.
I am overwhelmed by the big amount of comments and reactions that I generated in the first days of this funding campaign. And by the fact we reached over 10% of the goal in less than 2 days.
I’m sure there’s a lot of questioning and I saw a few comments and conclusions made by people who don’t know much about my story. I feel like I owe you all an explanation because with a bit of time I thought my way of communicating about this matter was awkward.
I would like to make it as short as possible and don’t want to name and shame anyone. The action I’m taking was made of nothing but good intentions towards anyone involved. And I wish I didn’t have to involve any of you.
First thing to clarify is the “donations”. As I’m not allowed by go fund me to promise you anything in return, I had to pull lines stating that your money will never be used by myself. As of today I have no access to this money and I don’t want to. My goal is to get a loan for that exact amount and your support is exactly showing investors that the asset is worth it. After which, I’ll pay everyone back. Due to my situation I couldn’t get a loan from my local banks. So whether we reach the goal or not, people will get their money back. It wasn’t possible to create anything like a Kickstarter campaign at this point because it takes time that I don’t necessarily have. My rights are on borrowed time. Read on for further explanation.
The second thing I need to address is my social and financial situation. Most people know me for my records but have absolutely no idea that the past two years on top of making records, I have had a few jobs on the side to pay my bills and my taxes in the country with the highest tax in the world. During COVID I was happy to have a day job as a public school teacher, was really happy with it, I’m not ashamed by this situation at all. Many people in the comments spread the idea that I’m super rich and that I’m playing people. Nothing could be further from the truth. I spend the past 20 years covering losses for some very nasty people who actually abused me. I kept reinvesting the money I earned into my career and not into stupid cars and toys. My family and I live with the bare minimum and I don’t even own a compact car to cut the costs. I got rid of most of my music gear to pay bills. Some people mentioned that I’d make ten grand per gig… which isn’t true at all. My MainStage gig at tml 2018 brought me 800€ gross ( 40% taxable). I have evidence of it. And I never complained about this either. I never made big money throughout my career and never openly complained about it. That’s life and I accept it very well. Not jealous at those who do make big money, either.
The third thing I have to address is my purpose and the origins of my action. While I have no problem giving my rights to a record label, said record label has to take care of my catalog as a serious asset. In 2016 it was still the case. Three years later the situation started degrading. Only a few % of my tracks are being exploited. And here comes the worsening event. The catalog is owned by two entities fighting possibly to court as we speak, and because I don’t want to be part of a court case, or a possible takeover of the entire catalog including mine, by future third parties in the case the catalog needs to be sold to actually stop the legal fight between the owners. Further, the value of my catalog is degrading because both parties fighting for ownership aren’t in state to actively exploit it. As a piece of evidence, I have several people claiming they wanted to use some of my music on their label with top remixers features, labels are big fans and friends, and they never got a reply. I can’t let this happen without taking action however I wish I didn’t have to. I’ll spare you the abusive events I’ve been through during the 25 years of business relationship, because I don’t want them to have their weight in my actual campaign. As much as possible I want to avoid giving some people ammo.
So I’ll conclude by saying this. Had I really wanted to play my fans, knowing I’m not even touching the money on go fund me, taking all the business and financial risks on me in the future, and knowing that I have a day job or two just like you all to cover my costs and keep my family safe… knowing all that, I would try to play my fan base differently, don’t you think?
My only goal is to get out of this legal fight I don’t want to be involved with as an artist, asking temporary support to my fan base before rewarding it with future music plans such as 8 new tracks on top labels, plus a sequel album that’ll make noise in 2024 and that’s nearly half done, while reimbursing every penny that my fan base has donated so that we could celebrate 25 years airwave next year in full.
I was young and stupid enough to believe in some people for over 20 years who purposely gaslit me, however it’s my responsibility, and I admit it. Weren’t it for this involvement into something no one needs to be part of, I wouldn’t even bother asking anything from you even temporarily because indeed, it’s technically my “fault” that I got gaslit.
Last thing I wanna tell you is that re-recording 800 productions minimum isn’t an option in my case. And I don’t want these productions to sound inferior either. A risk I can’t take. I know that many mentioned the idea, but technically far from possible.
Knowing all this, I hope I informed you well, that’s as good as I could at present time. I believe I’m not good at communicating, especially on such short notice, but at least I’m trying my best.
And here’s Myla, my daughter, 14. Say hi to her if you like. Remember that behind this business thing, there are people too and not machines. I’m just another individual trying to move on, so thanks for respecting this. And I know that some disagree with me and my methods and thats fine, I just would like you to consider respecting my choices whether the above convinced you or not.
Many thanks once again to the all of you. Having a community like you around is invaluable, and like expressed before I wish I didn’t have to get you involved into this.

if you feel like helping me out: check in the comments for the gofundme link.

 

[Enlusion]

Not much new information there. A lot of questions are still without answers.

 

[Julian Del Agranda]

How I understand it:

He will not use the money in the fund. He will only show it to the bank hoping they will then understand that his discrography is worth 40k. And then the bank will loan him 40k. Then he will cancel the fund so everybody gets paid back.

 

[Progrez]

Not much new information there. A lot of questions are still without answers.

What more information do you need? Obviously he can't say much due to the fact that he is in a legal battle.

 

[Hensmon]

I donated, think its a good cause. Sounds like him having the rights to his own music is needed and in principle probably deserved. I am happy to give him money. Lady Blue 1992 Flight is worth like $100+ to me alone, the amount of listens and happiness it has given me over the years. Bit shameful to admit that I pirated a lot of his music when I was growing up as teen and young adult so probably should be paying that dude back ha. For me is the GOAT producer of Trance

 

[HTY]

Why some negative reactions here? Yes he signed a contract probably years ago but the music landscape is way different now and owning your own music is more vital, labels can’t offer you shit now if your a full time producer. As Laurent mentioned he has seen poor handling with with his catalog so it’s normal to want to take back control over the music you spent a lifetime creating yourself. And he’s doing it the normal way, which is to buy it back legally. No way any Trance producer has that kind of money lying around so asking the fans for help is cool to me, not sure what else he’s supposed to do.