Tei Shi explains why second album La Linda has been removed from streaming services

13 July 2021, 17:27 | Written by Cerys Kenneally

(News)

(Tei Shi)

Tei Shi has shared a statement explaining why her 2019 second album La Linda has been taken down from streaming services.

La Linda, released in 2019, was Tei Shi's second album, and this afternoon (13 July) she uploaded a statement to socials explaining the reason why the album has disappeared from streaming services.

Tei Shi wrote, "The album was released in November of 2019 and the label that released it, Downtown Records, has yet to pay me my full advance. Since I've turned in the masters in the summer of 2019, I've been trying to get the back-end of my advance payment (the second half, which is normally paid out upon delivery of the final masters) - that's two years now of chasing this money that is contractually owed to me. This is just the very final touch on a painstaking, several year process of trying to get this album made and out into the world in the first place."

She continued that there's "more to the story", and explained that a few weeks ago "I ultimately found myself in a situation where I had to exercise my last possible resort, which was to send a cease and desist."

Tei Shi wrote that she thought it would at least gain a response from the label, "but like every other attempt to contact them for the past few months (and almost every other attempt throughout the last year) it went unanswered."

Due to her cease and desist, Tei Shi explained that La Linda has been "pulled down from all streaming platforms." Tei Shi continued, "It's been down now for a week and I have still not heard from them."

"I want you to know how painful it is for me to have this music, which I spent two years of my life on, taken down in the first place," Tei Shi wrote. "To have to get to a point where I had to ask for my music to be erased from the world was beyond fucked up."

Tei Shi added, "I have no control over what happens to it from here and have no ability to put it back out myself since they, as the label, own it. It sucks...I never wanted to get to this point. I just want to be paid what I am owed and move on with my life."