Post

Andrew Barnick (Lyichir)
@lyichir.bsky.social

This reminds me of the recent scandal around unpaid authors from the publisher Unbound. The point of a publisher or music label is as an intermediary—the idea that through mismanagement or fraud a publisher/label would pocket revenue without compensating authors/artists is such a betrayal.

2 Mello
@2mello.net

Yeah, I was actually using that as an example when sharing this with my writer friends! In this case, the revenue was getting routed improperly and no one was bothering to look into or fix it despite the amounts

Tim
@tlatshaw.bsky.social

I think he knows. I remember him reading the riot act to Materia when they started getting on Undertale Yellow's case. I wonder if he's bound by contract or something.

2 Mello
@2mello.net

I had to kick up a fuss along with other composers and they ended up paying me over $7,000 in unpaid royalties, a life-changing amount of money that had been kept back by them. This was specifically due to mismanagement by the founder, Sebastian Wolff, who I think remains at the company.

Cammy
@icedragonsden.bsky.social

Sebastian Wolf has actually become something of a meme in the Undertale/Deltarune community because of how he responds to situations like these, so yeah, I can confirm he's still at the company. No one who knows who he is likes likes him one bit. You sounded unsure so I figured I'd add that context.

2 Mello
@2mello.net

I get paid regularly now, it's all fixed up, but later that year, they were in even more mess after employees and other artists came out about payments that weren't received, so it wasn't just us. www.rpgfan.com/2021/11/08/m...

rpgfan.comMateria Community To Remove Catalogue After Legal Requests From Artists And Materia Collective Fallout | RPGFanIn the wake of the accusations, multiple artists requested to have their contributions to the Materia Community catalogue taken down. Because of the legal
2 Mello
@2mello.net

It boggles my mind that this company's still around and acquiring new releases, while finer video game music labels like Ship To Shore have shuttered and had their catalogs absorbed by Materia. In one music community, you should not be able to have this many scandals and be the one that lives.

2 Mello
@2mello.net

I'm sharing this thread now, years after my issue was resolved, because I wanted to add this part of their history to the new struggles folks are having. I'm right there with you, they are the record label that made me hate record labels. They need to rethink striking gameplay videos and music.