| General Bobby Farrell | Bobby Farrell Promotions | Vandor Company Directory |
ARTICLE 06 |
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Burley Watson, International Industrial Review, Investigative Reporter, Nashville, TN Getting a Recording Contract is the dream of everyone who has been bitten by the roar of the grease paint and the smell of the crowd since Edison invented the phonograph. Those who 'go to (name the music capitol) to get a break' should realize they may very well be the best 'talent' their home town has ever seen but here in Nashville, New York or Hollywood they are just one more jerk looking for a handout! Only one out of ten thousand ever even get to work on a distributed product. About the same number ever get a chance to 'road band' with an Artist on a distributed label. One out of ten thousand odds while you're starving on the street isn't exactly paradise terms. Even those who manage to gin-mill enough to keep themselves in boiled eggs and a rat's nest never bankroll sufficient funds to make acceptable demos, let alone pay their share of a distributed record. For the most part they could do far better right there at home. Should someone from a 'label' or 'production company' observe them as being a potential monetary threat to any of their investments: the sign-them-to-a-contract scam is on in all it's full fury! But if you're stupid enough to be in one of the so-called Music Capitols 'to be discovered', they already know you're too stupid to be any threat at all and they don't have to waste one penny on you! The 'sweetheart' contract is one that fulfills all the myths and delusions about the Industry: (1) It costs the artist nothing; and that's exactly how much the artist will get paid regardless of how many copies the record sells; (2) It takes all the artist's original compositions and song ideas; and retains them until the record company's 'investment' is paid in full which is usually never; and (3) Any and all Artist's earnings are charged back until the record company's 'investment' is paid in full which is also usually never; and (4) The record company can continue to run up debt against the Artist as long as necessary! If there's an album involved, rather than a single or 'demo' session (why a record company needs a demo of its own acts for its own use is ludicrous) there is probably a "tour to promote the record" somewhere in the fine print. Now think about that. When anyone buys a ticket to a concert it's to see an Artist whose recordings have made them famous, not some jerk hawking records nobody ever heard tell of! The real reason for the 'tour' is to guarantee the jerk will be head banging a gig somewhere in the dark regions of Swamptown when the Artist they might have infringed on plays The Grand Palace in Tinsel Ville. And it's no more complicated than that! Any and all such 'sweetheart' contracts are shelving (the record company can put the product on the shelf for as long as it likes) contracts designed for the sole and exclusive purpose of being a very inexpensive insurance policy! There's no such thing as insurance on a record project, especially for ROI (Return On Investment), and the only recourse to protect a working investment is to shelve contract any and all real competition that's ignorant enough to sign. The fact it's legal doesn't change the immorality of it one bit. In an honest Executive Producer's contract here's what to look for: (1) A simple twenty or so page agreement that used to be easily in no more than six or seven pages; (2) A term of not more than five years with two year riders; (3) A total lack of charge back; (4) Royalties of not less than statutory - as of 2004 at EIGHT and ONE HALF CENTS ($.085) per 3:00 song, although VMG pays EIGHT POINT SIX CENTS ($.086) per 3:00 song; (5) A total lack of embindments on other songs you've composed (although they may not use them); (6) An Executive Producer's fee that is NOT LESS than one quarter (or there won't be enough money to do the project properly) nor MORE than one third (or you're footing the whole bill yourself!) of the Total Promotion Budget; (7) A total absence of lesser mechanical royalty rate for using your own compositions; and (8) A breakdown of the Label's, Music Publisher(s)' and General Licenser's share of the investment. What to avoid: any contract that costs you nothing and doesn't spell out the vast array of limitations inferred above; and any contract with any Label that isn't licensed and distributed by one of The Super Six General Licensers and carries the Licenser's logo on its label. Facts & Figures: The U.S. Copyright Office averages processing some thirty five thousand music copyrights each and every WEEK, fifty two weeks a year! About fifteen percent are renewals, leaving about thirty thousand copyrights per week covering brand new material. The average copyright for music covers TEN POINT THREE (10.3) songs for a total of 15,934,100 brand new songs each and every year! Facts & Figures: The Super Six General Licensers release about 2,500 albums per year combined, each containing an average of TEN songs. That's a total of some 25,000 songs. However, about one third of those 25,000 album inclusions are re-caps of previously released material, leaving only about 17,300 new compositions recorded and released per year out of 15,934,100 written per year! No wonder the song sharks have huge schools of fish to feed on! Facts & Figures: Only one out of eight distributed albums ever sells any copies at all. Non-distributed (independent label) albums manage only about one tenth of one percent (.001%) of total commercial sales. Only one out of eighty singles ever sell any copies at all except as album outcues. A few Foreign Countries still buy 45RPM single records but most prefer cassettes, and there are some 3,500,000 jukeboxes still in operation (2002) using the old 45s. And a few thousand still using 78s! Facts & Figures: The optimum running time for any record is UNDER three minutes and thirty seconds (3:30)! The reason is: cost of radio air time! The average United States radio rotation of a record is 8 times a day 7 days a week for 6 weeks; the average cost of a thirty second spot commercial is $25.00; making the average station's air time investment in each and every :30 of a song's running time $8,400.00 over the six week life of the average song! Facts & Figures: The Golden Rule: Those who have the Gold make The Rules! And it's never more true than in the multi-billion dollar recorded music Industry and especially where the 'waiting to be discovereds' are concerned. Facts & Figures: About 99% of all established Artists at one time recorded on a small label, and 99% of those will return to Indie labels before they retire. And the most successful avoided 'sweetheart' contracts from day one. It was easy enough, they just didn't expect someone else to finance their pipe dream. |
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Since new count began, 22 April 2008.
