Avalanche City has been ripped off by his former manager Matthew Coleman to the tune of $307,000, according to the New Zealand High Court, which delivered its findings last month.
An exhaustive breakdown of the 60-page findings by The Spinoff, show a number of egregious abuses by Matthew Coleman, including misdirecting over $85,000 worth of recorded music royalties earned by the artist – real name Dave Baxter – into personal accounts held by Coleman and/or his wife. Coleman claimed he was within his rights to collect this income as he was acting as Baxter’s record label – although he didn’t report it at all to Baxter.
High Court judge Justice Susan Thomas found that Coleman wasn’t actually Baxter’s label at all, and even if he was, he was only entitled to 50% of what he took, and, in any case, was required to report all earnings to Baxter.
Elsewhere, $80,000 in artist grants awarded to Baxter were kept by Coleman; he under-reported income earned by Baxter and kept more than his 20% manager’s commission; he charged Baxter for non-existent “artist expenses”; and took large commissions on merchandise sales.
Basically, it was the systematic siphoning of Baxter’s hard-earned money, something that may have gone undetected for many more years had he not chanced upon a contract for a gig he was hired to do for Air New Zealand.
Baxter was told by Coleman the deal was for $10,000 in travel credit and $1,000 in cash. The contract was actually for $20,000 in travel credit and $1,000 – far less than Coleman let on. After speaking to Air New Zealand, Baxter learned the original offer was for $15,000, rather than travel credit – which Coleman hadn’t disclose. This was the moment he started to suspect things weren’t as they seemed…
Sadly, this isn’t an isolated tale. Just last year, BMG sued Tame Impala’s label Modular for roughly $250,000 of missing royalties, after Kevin Parker claimed he hadn’t earned a cent for international sales of Tame Impala’s album, saying “someone high up spent the money before it got to me.” Parker doesn’t expect to ever see the money, and seems diplomatic about things, saying, “Whilst it is naive that I don’t give a shit about that much money that’s gone missing, I just find it counter-productive to get worked up over it.”
In fact, it was missing money that forced Leonard Cohen back on the road in the years prior to his death, after his former manager (and ex-lover) siphoned millions of dollars from him. Cohen had expected to retire on roughly $5 million, only to discover he had less than $150,000. While it cannot be said with any certainty that this hastened Cohen’s death, a vigorous touring schedule for a man in his 70s, coupled with the shock of betrayal from a lover cannot have helped his health along in any way.
At the end of the day, the allure of being “discovered”, mixed with creative and financial impulses being almost diametrically opposed, means that countless artists have been and will continue to be exploited in this manner. The way companies are structured often means that even when these deceptions are discovered, there is scant punishment or disincentive.
Matt Coleman stole $307,000 from Baxter, as ruled by the High Court, but he is unlikely to pay a cent. His management company, Let The People Speak, went into liquidation on November 30, with the statement from the liquidators reading: “The director identified that the company was unable to pay its debts as they were due.”
Matt Coleman was awarded New Zealand Music Manager of the Year in 2010. He now runs a tech conference, Magnify.
