1754 days ago, I made a comment on here about how my music of the past seemed a lot more popular. And how each new track got fewer and fewer listeners. kleinbl00 responded by saying this: Today, after 3 years of sending tracks across, I got the go ahead for an LP from a label I have great respect for. Needless to say, I am thrilled. I remembered the above comment many times during those periods where I doubted myself. So thank you for that, kb.
Congrats, bro! Well deserved. Can you give any details on the negotiation process? I'm sure it widely varies between labels, mostly as a function of prestige/audience size, but any details are appreciated.
Thank you! We haven't done any contract talks yet. We're currently each choosing a list of 10 tracks to make up the LP then comparing. Most contracts I've signed before have been pretty standard. The label takes 100% until they recuperate their costs, then a 50/50 split. Though this is a bit more of a serious thing, so maybe they'll be some differences. Once we get there, I will let you know if there's anything interesting.
Just make sure you retain ownership of the music itself, as well as your 50/50 split. Also, define ahead of time what you are getting 50% of... net? profit? It's easy for the label to pay their own staff to do a bunch of marketing for you, and claim they have spent all the profits, so your 50% of profits is $0.00.
For sure, I always made sure of the ownership thing in previous contracts. It's only a small label curated by an artist who's been in the scene since its inception. So there's not like there's a load of staff or anything. It's more that they just that they are well respected and know everybody! I believe that they do A+R for a bigger label too. Most of the cost I think will go into the physical releases as they produce vinyls and CDs for the LP projects they release. It's not a label that churns out loads of releases. Instead, they tend to focus on fostering emerging talent with original takes on the genre. So whilst I always be on the look, I don't expect them to do anything to screw me over.