The music label Materia Collective, specializing in game soundtracks, was at the center of the scandal. The composer of B-sides* for Celeste stated that the company has not paid him royalties for almost two years. At least eight other people have joined the prosecution.
2 Mello, one of the authors of the B-sides for Celeste, posted his claims on Twitter at the end of last week. According to him, he did this in the hope of reaching out to the management of Materia Collective, with whom the musician has not been able to contact for several months
As 2 Mello wrote, he and three other colleagues have not received royalties since July 26, 2019 — from the date when the label started supporting their music. The composer repeatedly tried to discuss this issue with Materia Collective, but it did not lead to anything.
I made a request for payments in October 2020, and I was confirmed that I have royalties not transferred to the account. Since November, I haven't heard anything more about it. 17 months have passed since the last payment in July. I sent three more messages, but they remained unanswered.
The publication of the composer Celeste did not go unnoticed.
For example, the musician was supported by Laura Intravia, who at one time wrote soundtracks for Destiny 2 and Mortal Kombat 11. She also noted that she herself had not seen payments from the label for the last 13 months. Alex Parish, the author of music for ZED, found himself in a similar situation.
According to PC Gamer, the total number of victims of the actions of Materia Collective can number in the tens of people. 2 Mello shared this figure with the portal during an interview. They say that over the past weekend, the composer saw posts from eight people who worked with the label and know firsthand how poorly the payment system is organized.
Materia Collective has already apologized for what happened. The company stated that the label’s too rapid growth was to blame, because of which “I had no idea how widespread the problem had spread.” She also promised to do everything possible so that this would not happen again. All the money not transferred earlier will be transferred to the musicians by mid-February.
*in this case, B-sides most likely mean remixes of the original soundtrack to Celeste.