Hey, we're getting the band back together. Give me a call!
Posted on 01/03/2021 11:36:42 AM PST by SamAdams76
You've finally made it. A record label recognized your exceptional talent and offered you what seems like the deal of a lifetime. But before you sign on the dotted line, make sure you actually understand what you're signing so your dreams of fame and fortune don't turn into a nightmare like it did for Robert Henderson (you never heard of him and there's a reason for that, as he could have been bigger than John Cougar). Here are five tips every artist should consider before signing their first recording contract.
Typically, the initial length of a recording contract is one year. This one year term is generally followed by several option periods, where the record label is free to renew your contract for additional time periods if they like the work you're producing. By limiting the length of your contract to one year, not including option periods, you prevent a record label from effectively controlling your life and creative work for an unreasonable amount of time.
You never know where your career will take you, and it's important to keep your options open. 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. Before signing that contract, make sure the record label isn't locking you into a lengthy contract with no escape.
In addition, you should think about negotiating a minimum marketing spend as a part of your release commitment. This gives the record label some "skin in the game" when producing your album, forcing them to actually spend money to market your creativity, making your hard work pay off.
Don't let a record label convince you that a one or two percent royalty rate is the industry standard. Some record labels prey upon unsuspecting artists by offering relatively large upfront signing bonuses, giving their artists an initial feeling of success. But in return, the contract gives the artist a paltry royalty rate, ensuring that the label – not the artist – will reap all the long-term rewards of artistic success.
But some record labels sneak in abhorrent and enormous royalty deductions that all but guarantee you'll never receive a royalty check. Watch out for deductions based upon the record label's general costs of doing business, like the deduction of record label owners' salaries and benefits. You should also keep your eyes peeled for deductions that give the label a blank check, like unlimited deductions for travel, hotel stays, car rental, meals and entertainment, and other costs that a devious record label could use to rack up a lavish tab at your expense.
Artists often ask me how they can ensure the record label is being honest with them about the total number of albums or tracks sold. Without honest communication and detailed record keeping, the relationship between artist and label can quickly turn contentious. An audit provision is the best way to prevent this type of communication breakdown before it happens.
The typical audit provision gives the artist the ability to hire a third party auditor to go through the record label's books and records and make sure they're paying the artist what he or she is entitled to under the contract. Typically, the artist must pay for this type of audit. However, many audit clauses require that the record label pay for the audit if a large discrepancy is found.
Before signing a record deal, it’s always a good idea to hire qualified legal counsel to review the record label's proposed contract. But with the above tips in mind, you can now at least look at the contract and know whether the label is trying to squeeze every last penny out of your artistic abilities while hanging you out to dry. Remember, you can be the next John Cougar with your very own "Jack And Diane" type anthem!
>>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
.
>>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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.