Things have all gotten a bit messy with the changes afoot around two of Australia’s most loved music companies. Both Shock Entertainment and Stomp have been sold to other interests, but it seems that these bastions of the local indie scene have burned some people along the way. Shock Music owes creditors $4.2 million, including $1.5 million owed to musicians in royalties. It’s even worse in the Stomp camp, with $11 million owed to creditors.
After Regency Entertainment bought Shock back in July, it seemed that the worst that would happen is that around 40 musicians who had jobs in the company’s warehouse would be looking for a new day job. However, it appears that something a bit shifty occurred and that the Shock Entertainment Company changed its name to Dotvan Pty Ltd before declaring insolvency. As such, Dotvan now owes money to the likes of Architecture in Helsinki, Little Red, The Hoodoo Gurus, and Painters & Dockers.
It’s also not pretty in Stomp HQ either – they owe shitloads of money to overseas labels such as Jonathan Poneman’s legendary Seattle label, Sub Pop who are $219,000 out of pocket. Another large creditor is Tony Brummel’s Victory Records in Chicago who want their $240,000. Stomp have also failed to pony up the cash to Tom Silverman’s Tommy Boy Entertainment and Californian labels Metal Blade, CMH Records and Revolver.
Not only does Stomp also owe money to the major four record labels in Australia, the greatest irony is that it also owes money to Shock Entertainment.
