Now that you have gone through your contract negotiations and have signed (or are about to sign) your first music contract, let’s take a deeper dive into what is in the contract, and what would be expected of you as the artist during the term of your contract.
First, let’s start with the term length of your contract. When you sign your initial deal (assuming it is a record deal, and not one with a publishing and/or production company as the terms of these will more than likely be a time period of years, rather than number of albums) you will be obligated to produce a certain amount of albums (or projects) before you can “get out of” your first deal. Depending on what your status is as an artist when you first sign (for sake of this article, let’s assume you have a successful single, a good performing project and a good following on social media, at least a hundred thousand) you will more than likely sign a deal that ties you to the label for five albums. (if you are lucky it could be three, if you’re unlucky it will be more, think of Lil Wayne when he initially signed to Cash Money and was tied to them for something crazy like 20 albums) This means that you have to release five albums to complete the term length of your contract with this label. (keeping in mind there will be stipulations as to what the label considers an album, meaning there will be a specific number of songs, and length of the album or the label may not count your project towards your five albums) Until you meet this five album mark, you will be contractually tied to this record company and not able to sign (or associate) with a different company, regardless of what you feel maybe best. This is the issue that most artist complain about after their first few releases. The label has control over what you release and when (based on the language and terms of your contract) and they can dictate how you are able to release your music. When this happens, you generally begin to hear the artist saying, “The label will not let me release music,” and because of this the artist starts to leak music. Understand that based on what you signed, and what the label considers an album, if you release mixtapes, this may not always count as an album to the label (ask Joe Budden) and due to this, you can release five mixtapes in an attempt to get out of the deal, only to not be able to based on the contract language as to what the label considers an album. (the label will usually consider an album something close to 10 songs and an hour in time)
When you sign to a major label, as long as you are under contract, they can dictate who you work with and when. Yes, it is true that you as an artist may have a team you prefer to work with, however, the label has the right to choose to have you work with specific producers and writers because it benefits the label. (generally because these producers and writers are also signed to the label, meaning the label won’t have to split publishing and profits with a second and third label, they get the whole pie) This means that you spend months working with a team of producers (and writers if you so choose) only to not have any of those songs appear on the album, because the handful of songs that your label made you do with producers and writers that are signed to them is more beneficial financially. Based on the language in your contract the label can also state the people you are not allowed to work with as well. This means that if you work with this, “Banned list,” of artists, writers and producers, you can be in breach of contract which can have financial ramifications. Be mindful of the different stipulations the label puts in your contract as to who you can and cannot work with, because the label will put you in a position of only being able to work with certain people, along with having only a certain amount of time to turn in projects.
What is every artist’s favorite part of their first contract? The advance. As we all know (or most of the people in the music industry) when an artist signs to a major label (or in most cases any label) the artist receives an advance once they sign their contract. Depending on the artist and the value they can bring to the label, the amount of advance money you get will vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to possible a million dollars. However, what most artists don’t realize is what this advance means. Advance indicates that the money has to be paid back, this is not free money. (we all know there is no such thing as free money, there are always strings attached) For argument sake of this article, you receive an advance of $100,000 in your first contract. This means that before you as the artist are able to receive any money from your releases, your tours, your merchandise, or anything else that you put out into the world that generates revenue after you have signed your contract, the label must recoup that $100,000. Worst case scenario, you only generate $100,000 on your first release, guess what, you receive no money from that. Not to mention, that anything you have done after signing to the label (studio sessions, travel, press runs, music videos, clothing, photo shoots, development, consulting, etc.) that the label has paid for on your behalf must be recouped by the label as well. This is another aspect of your contract that most artists don’t realize is there. They think that all the work they are doing is the responsibility of the label to front the bill because you chose to sign me as an artist. No, this is not the case, the label is signing you and fronting these expenses with the intention of recouping all of this money (and more) once you have released your music and began touring. Understand that nothing is free, especially when it comes to the music industry. Anything and everything that the label can charge you for they will. Anything that the label puts together for you as an artist during your roll out and in the production of your music, they are indirectly charging you for. You spend a month in a top of the line recording studio to complete your album, you send that album to the best mixing and mastering engineers in the country, you fly on private planes to travel to different press appearances and recording sessions, you travel on a fancy tour bus for region tours and that same private plane for national and International tours, and of course you are staying in the nicest five star hotels, all while you yourself not paying for anything, who do you think is paying for this, and where do you think the money is coming from? The label is paying for everything and they are keeping a tab on the amount of money they are spending. They have set a certain budget for each aspect of you as an artist, and all of that money must be recouped by the label before you as the artist see any of it. (forget what happens if you go over budget)
Now that you understand a little bit more about what your term length is, (in regard to a major record label) the details of who you are able to work with and what your advance really means, what are some of the other terms that can be in your contract. Once your album is released you will be obligated to attend a certain amount of press events and interviews, perform a certain amount of shows and tour dates, and you will be expected do sell a certain amount of albums. All of this will be in your contract, but if you don’t know what these stipulations are, you could be in for a world of trouble. I will speak fully on what is expected of you as an artist in regard to touring in a future article so right now lets speak about press runs and album sales.
Doing press runs is how you as an artist promote your new release or upcoming release depending on when you start your press run. Normally you will begin a press run shortly before the release of your project. (a few weeks in most cases) This means you will be going on the road all across the country for different radio interviews, television appearances, podcast interviews, club walkthroughs, and in person appearances at different venues. Most of this will be done in a relatively short period of time. (over the course of a few weeks to a month) This means that you will be constantly traveling to different cities each day and night (sometimes multiple cities in the same day, I personally have traveled with an artist where we did three different press events in three different cities in three different states in the same day) with little to no rest in between. If you have ever been to a meet and greet with an artist before or after a show or sometimes during a pop up event and the artist seems less than enthused to be there, it is generally because this is 20th stop in 10 days in the 12th state with constant travel and little rest. (mind you that they are most likely performing each night in these different cities as well) It is the responsibility of the manager to make sure the artist is rested and ready for these events and stops, but there is absolutely nothing the manager can do in most of these cases, as this schedule is put together by the label at their discretion, all to benefit them. (remember as an artist to take care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally during these and other periods of time in your career, there is a enormous amount of pressure, stress and expectations of you as an artist, and as we have seen so often over the last few years, artists break down more often because they are not taking care of themselves and are not prepared for what is to come)
Which brings us to album sales. Once your album is released it is expected to generate a certain number of physical sales, digital downloads, views and streams, that all add up a some calculated number the label has deemed the album should do. Depending on the popularity of the artist this number can be anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands in the first week. Understanding that in almost every case the album will see a drop in numbers in the following weeks after the initial release, the first week numbers are what everyone looks at, what is coveted the most and where your chart rankings come from. This is when you hear the terms success or flop. Now, a flop is a relative term and what is considered a flop will depend on who the artist is and what type of numbers they have generated with past releases. For a new artists (again depending on their popularity and fan base) somewhere around 20,000-100,000 (understanding that this is a wide range) of total sales (physical, digital, streams, etc.) in the first week can be considered a success. On the flip side for an established artist, this could be considered a flop. So what happens if your release is considered a flop? If you are a new artist and this is your first release, most likely (if you are given the chance for a second release) your budget will drop considerably or worse you may get shelved by your label. If you get shelved, this means that you are still under contract with your label but the label has put you on the back burner while they focus on breaking and working with their other artists. They may not allow you to release music, and if you do release music, you most likely will not have the same promotional budget behind you, (if any) meaning the press run you went on before, and the travel you had the first time, will be non existent. Have fun on your sprinter van you will be traveling in back and forth on the same day. However, if you meet or surpass the expectations of your release, your budget will grow, the label machine behind you will work faster and you will become a main focus of everyone at the label. Don’t take this for granted, because even if you are doing well, I have heard cases where label personnel don’t work as hard for an artist simply because they don’t like this artist only because the artist isn’t completely personable when speaking with this person. Be friendly with the label personnel because this are the people that ensure everything you do works properly. They can be the difference between marketing your project to ensure it succeeds, or “forgetting” to market your project leading to the project being considered a flop.
Briefly lets speak about some of the terms if you are signing with a production and/or publishing company, as these will differ slightly from signing with a record company. The primary goal of a production or publishing company (which I have touched on in previous articles) is not so much to promote an artist and sell records, but more so to place the records the artist makes, and work more closely with producers and writers. A publishing company will sign an artist to gain the publishing of their catalog. This means that the publishing company will own a percentage of every song that the artist makes and releases. These contracts usually have a term length of years rather than number of albums, as the artist may also be signed a record company for the production of the music. The publishing company will be the driving force behind getting your music placed in commercials, television shows, movies and so forth. If you are a writer or producer, the publishing company will be shopping your records to different artists’, labels, A&Rs, mangers and synch companies to get your records placed. This means that if one of your songs gets picked up by someone mentioned above, your song will then be featured on an artists’ album, a television show, a movie or some other entertainment medium. Synchs can be exponential more beneficial than releasing music, as placing a song in show, movie or video game means that every time that medium form is shown and the song plays, you generate revenue. For example, Pusha T wrote the McDonalds theme song, and owns 40% of the Arby’s theme song, every time a commercial is run and the theme songs is played he generates revenue. (except for McDonals because that was a one time payment) Both of these companies are in place to help develop artists, more so than the major labels, to get them to a point where they can obtain placements, and get signed by a major label. When signing with one of these companies you will be tied to them for a specific number of years and will be giving up a certain percentage of your publishing and sometimes ownerships of your masters. The terms of this range depending on the nature of the deal and how far along in development the artist, producer or writer is when signing, and I have seen the companies take anywhere from 20%-70% of the artists publishing, along with (in some cases) 100% ownership of the masters, meaning the artist doesn’t own the song they just recorded. (which means that if the artist leaves the company, the company still owns the rights to any song recorded during the contract) This is something to be mindful of because if you don’t own your own masters you have to get permission from this company to play and perform your own songs, and if you want ownership of your catalog you will have to pay the company what they deem your catalog is worth. (meaning they can name their price, and the more popular you and your songs are the more they will be worth, some artists’ catalogs are worth tens of millions of dollars)
As an artist it is completely necessary to fully understand everything that you are signing before you sign anything. (as I spoke about in the perilous article outlining what is in a standard music contract and the different types of music contracts) The terms and conditions (that all of us skip and accept when it comes to apps and technology) are the exact things that can and will hamstring you as an artist when it comes to your artistry. (in regard to signing to companies and labels) Be sure to know what you are signing, because if you don’t you will be under the full control of the label or company you signed to with no voice or recourse to what they ask (or make) you to do.
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