Apparently you do misunderstand, Ron, but it's very difficult to see how or why.

An advance may be paid prior to the release or even the making of a recording. The fact that the sum paid to Nic Jones in respect of Game Set Match (different archive recordings of which CM does not own the rights, was sufficient to repair his knee should be an indication of just how much faith a small independent company had in the project. This has, subsequently, been amply borne out by a Lifetime Achievement Award and (relatively) massive sales. This has surely vindicated Topic's determination in the face of both threatened legal action from CM and crass, ill-informed, pomposity about 'lost causes' from those operating their own screwed up agendas.

MCPS/PRS royalty fees (or lack thereof) are an entirely different area which I explained at length because you said you didn't understand how they worked in the UK. The important aspect of these is that, as a result of CM owning the publishing rights and failing to release the recordings, artists of been deprived of potential income for over two decades.

As a related side issue, I notice that a thread about Pat Cooksey's The Sick Note, thought to generate a considerable portion of CM's income, has been zapped after just one post. I wonder why.