Recording Industry/Contract question!

Does anyone here have experience in the recording industry from a contract standpoint?

Though I am an attorney, I'm not accustomed to these types of contracts and am looking for help advising my two daughters who have a contract offer for issuance of a record they have created.

Any assistance is much appreciated.

Fear not.

Its not illegal for the girls to issue their own record and bypass the company entirely.

The "traps" are "advances" ... what can the company run up in general expenses against future royalty and in specific expenses against future royalties. The record company can "promote" the record through parties that promote their general catalog and also parties that promote your daughter's record. Royalties won't be paid until all such advances are recouped... at the stated rates.

Watch also for "Reserves"... The major distributor sells say ten thousand records...reports to the record company sales of ten thousand, yet the record company then reports to your daughters Sales of ten thousand (of which we deem 8,000 are going to be returned) so we are paying royalties only on the 2,000 that we think are realistic sales. Often Reserves can be taken for up to 3 years. Avoid stuff like that.

A base price will be established and then they report actual sales but "de-base" the price to reflect allowable deductables. Remember there is a difference between owning the song and owning the rights to manage the song.

http://www.msba.org/departments/commpubl/publications/bar_bult/2009/may/maincontract.asp


Good luck,

Are you already convinced it's legit? I know there are fee based business offers that are more interested in charging a fee than in results. Models, artists, etc.,

Yeah, modeling agencies and recording contracts can be fertile field for con men who are really selling dreams to naive parents ... cramming needless up-front expenses for photos, publicity, image consultants, .... really just conmen selling hype about dreams.

I recommend All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald Passman. Great industry attorney.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. Fortunately, the offer does not appear to require any investment whatsoever from our end.