Hey, we're getting the band back together. Give me a call!
Posted on 01/03/2021 11:36:42 AM PST by SamAdams76
>>I’ve seen unscrupulous record labels use five- and even 10-year terms, locking their artists into long-term contracts that destroy their artists’ creative lives and financial futures
They can even get you under contract simply to park your career and not threaten their status quo.
Look at LORETTA LYNN...She signed a deal that said after the record company owners died died,her music came back to her..They both died,the families took Lynn to court and EVEN WITH THE SIGNED CONTRACT STATING SHE WOULD GET HER SONGS BACK,judge ruled for the record company.....Have to look out for crooked judges,too.....
It was an interesting article to read on a topic i was unfamiliar with. Not everything has to be politics all of the time and you come across as having nothing to contribute just like those few idiots who think they are saving the republic by pointing out bloggers reposting stuff.
Amen
What’s an aspiring young artist/band to do? CoVid stopped the touring. Radio stations are going out of business. Maybe you get a few hits on YouTube but nothing produces any income.
There are definitely record deals still. And there’s plenty of options for self-release also.
Under the terms of the contract, Joel signed to the label for life; the pianist was unaware of the clause at the time, but it would come back to haunt him - Family Productions received royalties from every album Joel sold until the late ‘80s.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/billy-joel-mn0000085915/biography
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>>A typical release commitment is a promise from the record label that it will release at least one album during your initial contract term. If you record the necessary tracks for a record and the label fails to release the record, you should then be allowed to walk away from the contract.
Someone should’ve warned Buddy Holly. But at least he knew to record his phone call with his label when they didn’t want to put out what became his first hits.
Feb. 28, 1957, Holly hooked up his reel-to-reel tape recorder to the phone and made a call to Decca Records, his label at the time, inquiring about the non-renewal of his contract.
They never released anything and said that the session was bad (and implied that there was nothing to the songs either). Buddy asked if he could get his songs back and the label response was no, that they had a lot of money tied up in them. Buddy offered to buy them/the session costs. Naw, we may release them some day, ya can’t record them for 5 years time!
One of those songs was “That’ll Be the Day,” which reached No. 1 late that year. Buddy ignored the ignoramous and went to Brunswick which was an affiliate label of Deccca and putting it out as The Crickets (on Coral another affiliate of Decca) so the big lawsuits were avoided.
Decca then issued the original recording of Buddy Holly With The Three Tunes.
It doesn’t appear that the audio of that call is currently on youtube.
https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/02/buddy-holly-on-line-one.html
>>3. Make sure your royalty rate is reasonable
Although royalty rates differ wildly based upon an artist’s notoriety and past success, there’s a general ballpark number for royalty rates that every artist should know. For new artists with little-to-no notoriety, a royalty rate of five to 10 percent is typical. Up-and-coming artists generally see between 10 and 14 percent royalty rates, while seasoned professionals can bring in as much as 18 percent in royalties.
In streaming you will see pennies. Even for tens of thousands of plays.
The platinum artists today don’t even need to have a physical release (or paid digital download) to reach that level in a week. Sure.
>>Standard deductions include recording costs, video production costs, the cost of creating CD and DVD packaging, and other similar costs.
CDs are going away and so are DVDs.
Some artists are just fine with that. They don’t have compete against used CD sales (or hear that stores are so glutted with used copies of their CDs that they refuse to even buy them).
>>5. Make sure you can audit the record label on royalty payments
No one who ever went in with an auditor came out empty handed. Your. Label. Will. Screw. You.
If you are over 20 they don’t want to sign you.
If you are over 30 media won’t play you.
If you are over 60 forget national coverage no matter how well you tour.
Hey, we're getting the band back together. Give me a call!
Jack White founded a record label and got his cultists to queue up to buy limited edition releases of his own music and artists who aren’t even exclusive to his roster.
Not everything is LTD Ed. But that FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) quotient had to buy him some brand loyalty even if it didn’t establish street cred.
Actually it wasn't. I'm in the process of cutting a deal with the Warner Music Group for a vocal album and after reading this article, I'm backing out.....
Thanks to Sam Adams for this great information.......
>> I’ve downloaded some Southern Rock music and it’s as good as many of the old days, like Skynard, 48 Special, etc.
Thing is too many people don’t care.
They’d rather pay bucks to see a legacy act with one (sometimes not even original) member playing the hits of the audience’s high school years than to step out and see new/unheard act that hits those same notes. They won’t even check out the acts that toured alongside those bands back in the day or listen to the other songs that once were played on radio but just not quite as big a hit (or only a regional market hit).
AOR (album oriented radio) is dead and Livenation/ClearChannel killed it.
I can’t say that Sirrus is much better. When there is a DJ hosted program the music does seem to have a little better flow. On the Beatles’ station without DJ you may hear Yellow Submarine next to Cold Turkey (about John’s heroin withdrawl) next to Act Naturally. Technically that is all Beatles-related but not an enjoyable or even educational mix. Can’t live life of random. Some things should be sequenced or at least currated.
>>I’ve downloaded some Southern Rock music and it’s as good as many of the old days, like Skynard, 48 Special, etc.
Josefus has celebrated 50 years as a band and it took them over 40 years to have a hit (via a famous cover of one of their 70s songs).
Tanya Tucker - Hard Luck (Official Music Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfIGYRKK8GQ
I could not possibly agree more. Well said!
There are soooo many ways to screw the artist you can’t even track them all. Some contracts claim a percentage of all work you do, not just recordings. So if you act in a movie (no singing) you owe them their cut. If you produce an album for someone else, yup, their cut. If you work in a grocery store, you owe them a cut.
We have walked away from deals where we saw the producers screwing the artist. We watched many really good musicians put out mediocre crap and earn nothing, but the producers and label got theirs!
My friend talks about the heartburn he has when he gets a rotalty check, knowing the guy who signed them, but did literally nothing for them, gets one of the same amount. I have another friend who talks about the micro pennies they get from streaming.
We have another friend who is very well known in his genre. He has refused to sign any more deals. He says that selling fewer CDs on his own web site earns him more money than he ever got from a label.
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