croixstar
Junior Member
- May 17, 2009
- 139
- 65
Hey Julian, and to anyone else who's interested in this music st00f
I'm going to give you a little crash course on the industry and its evolution, so you can start to see where the different parts fit in.
The Record Deal:
The term "record deal" is quite an embellished phrase these days. Back in the old days (50's) artists and songwriters were just as broke as they are today. Studio equipment was not affordable to really anyone at a consumer level and in order for these guys to get their songs down on tape, they needed to impress a rich dude who owned a recording studio. (Think "Walk The Line" or rent it if you haven't seen it yet).
Where a lot of the songwriters got screwed is they would sell the rights to their songs to the guy that owned the studio (if the songs were hit material). The guy at the studio would give them money and allow them to record for free. In Elvis' case, Sam Philips who owned a small recording studio in Memphis called Sun Studio, purchased some songs from various songwriters and gave them to Elvis to sing and record. This was essentially how the first "record deals" were done.
So continuing with Elvis as an example, he had a record which he recorded with a backing band in Sun Studio and Sam Philips owned the rights to that record. Once you had a record cut back in those days you could give the master tapes to various promoters and booking agents and try and get live gigs. So that was the essence of the recording contract at its most primal level - To record some tunes.
The Record Label:
Then the idea of selling recordings became a very lucrative idea. So you have your master tape, but what good is that without pressing and distribution?
Next financial hurdle: Someone had to come up with the cash to have the masters transferred en masse into small grooves on vinyl polymer - A record. So in Elvis' case, Sam Philips said, OK I think we can make some money here, and paid out of his studio revenue for Elvis' recording to be cut to vinyl (only a few copies).
When he distributed the vinyl records, he put a small round piece of paper in the middle of each disc with a drawing of a sun and a rooster on it. This "label" became Sun Records. Now you have a what we commonly call a record label.
By this time Sam was going broke as all the muso's using his studio were broke ass leechers who couldn't afford to pay the electricity bills (very similar situation to many studios across the world today are experiencing). So Sam decided to sell Elvis' masters and recording contract to another recording label called RCA Victor Records. He made $35,000 on the deal.
RCA Victor Records had a lot more money than Sam, and now they owned some pretty cool songs, One particular little money making gem was a track called "Hound Dog".
So RCA was able to then spend money making more copies of Elvis' record, have his photo printed up on the sleeve on each one of them and even pay for big trucks to deliver boxes of the records to small music shops, They shipped a few to the radio stations too. This was called "Pressing and Distribution", or P&D as we call it in the biz these days. (Most small indie labels today will do a P&D deal with their acts, allowing them to retain their own copyrights, but requiring them to chip in 30-50% of pressing costs).
The Artist:
So what about Elvis? How much money did he have to spend on his career? None. Elvis' job was to sway his hips back and forward and make your mothers babysitter at the time wet her pants. Elvis was paid quite handsomely for this and RCA Victor also paid for his food, booze and sleeping pills.
So now the function of a "Label" had become quite expansive. More than just putting their sticker on some vinyl. They were paying artists to record in a studio, they were paying for the vinyl to be pressed, they were paying trucks to deliver the records to shops, they were paying "breakage" for records that were damaged by sloppy tradies unloading the trucks (FYI - when you shipped enough records to factor in a breakage percent, you must have been doing quite well, hence the term "breaking an artist"). They were paying dudes like Elvis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison money so they wouldn't have to become plumbers or truck drivers, and eventually they were paying radio stations to play their records (Payola anyone?).
All these functions of a recording label, or imprint (the niche labels who had their own logo but were owned by a bigger company) became the standard practice of recording companies right up until 2009.
So as you can see there is a lot more than just having a master recording in your hot little hand.
Marketing:
Eventually the general public decided they really liked this music thing and probably many people on this forum will remember sleeping next to their radio's waiting for that one awesome song to come on and saving all their pocket money up to buy that shiny black piece of vinyl.
So the record labels started to market towards this young demographic and eventually purchased other cool things like magazines, and merchandise to sell to the kids. This all became part of getting a "recording contract".
The labels grew so big that the marketing spend they had could not be rivaled and eventually, landing a major record deal was the only way to have your face on billboards, your own doll created, a favorable review in rags like Rolling Stone and Hit Parader, and of course, your songs put on rotation at major radio networks.
Publishing / Synchronization:
So along comes TV and creates popular shows like Greys Anatomy and Friends. To be hip to the kids, the TV producers decide they would like some cool music featured on these shows. So they go and talk to their buddies at a big label and say, "Hey can we get that totally hip yet tragically annoying song about letting the dogs out and put it on our TV show?" The record label says, "Yeah of course! Just pay us a couple bucks every time it plays on the show!" But what about Jimmy? Who the fuck's Jimmy? Jimmy is a pimple faced keyboard nerd that sits at home writing trashy songs all day and was lucky enough to have his sister sleep with a guy at a publishing company. With the help of his slutty sister, Jimmy was able to sell a song to record label, who funked it up and gave it to their 'cool ass' new breakout band to sing, who eventually got heard by the TV producers. You still with me?
So Jimmy owns the "mechanical rights" to this song, and he brokered a deal with his sisters boyfriend at the publishing company. Now, whenever that shitty TV show features that shitty song, now sung by that shitty band, Jimmy gets paid!
Now that was a very round about explanation of a publishing deal. This from Wiki:
The term (publishing) originally referred to publishers of sheet music. In the late 19th century sheet music was the primary commercial use of musical compositions. Today, the two businesses have diverged the large companies known as "music publishers" are not typically in the business of producing printed music.
The copyrights owned and administered by publishing companies are one of the most important forms of intellectual property in the music industry. (The other is the copyright on a master recording which is typically owned by a record company.) Publishing companies play a central role in managing this vital asset.
Now, a publishing deal will screw you in the ass pretty hard too, and are generally part of the greater recording contract. Essentially you assign the management of your original songs (not recordings) to a company who makes sure you get paid when they're used in a tampon ad on TV or given to an acapella homosexual nudist colony to record at their bi-annual meet up.
Modern Deals:
This post is getting long now so I'll cut things short. Now days a record label will lock you into what's called a 360 degree contract. This is because they now suck at marketing and distribution (Thanks internet!) and still want a ton of money to pay for hookers for their execs.
A 360 deal gives the record label exclusive rights to your recordings, your publishing, your brand/image, your T-shirts, dolls, lunch boxes, synchronization and now even a vast percentage of your takings when you play Wembly Arena. You'll most likely be signed on for a certain number of albums (3-4 being the norm) or one album with "options". (Options means if your first record does OK, the record company reserves the right to force you into making another one, but if it tanks they can drop you). Labels know statistically that the chances of your record going "big" are next to zilch, so why would they sign you up for 4 records??? Because if your girlfriend dumps you 2 years down the track and you sit down and write the greatest love song ever written, they still own it and can give it to Miley Cyrus to sing.
The reality in 2009/2010:
So here's how things are in 2009. Unlike Elvis, most people can now afford a pretty decent home setup to record their stuff. Sounds like you've already put a lot of cash into this part Julian, so all good there.
These days most record stores are closing down (Tower being a big one) and most people don't really give a toss about buying CD's at Walmart (Just look at their music section now days). So paying for vast numbers of pressings is not essential, but you may want to track down a small label who can give you access to their vinyl pressers to get some limited editions pressed up for your hardcore fans.
Trucks and breakage is no longer an issue and that used to be a big sucker of your advance at a major (still factored in today of course, greedy bastards).
Shopping for a publishing deal shouldn't be a big priority at the moment. You can easily register your tunes with BMI, ASCAP or SESAC (google them) and they will track your broadcast and performance so you get paid.
Your best bet is to spend your time making a decent website and getting your songs onto iTunes/Amazon. Google this, it's quite easy. If you're looking for synch opportunities you can buy a list of production manager's phone numbers at media companies and try to solicit them directly. A better bet would be putting some money into a decent entertainment lawyer who will have contacts in film and television houses. A good attorney will be able to shop your stuff to these guys and negotiate a decent publishing percentage for your tracks. Beware of online services that offer synchronization soliciting services, they are basically music industry black hatters and will take your money to throw your tracks in the recycle bin - Shift-Delete!
Anyway that's enough typing for this god-awful long post!
Take it easy.
i just wish i had as much knowledge in im as i do in music. i would be making an easy 50 k a month! good call man! you know whats up....record dealz are not all what they are cracked up to be. make all the money in im ....then take it and fund your own music carreer . you will owe no one back ! 700 k to one million dollars is whats needed to break an artist these days. if you know what your doing. and have good music of course! Good Luck