R/E/P Community
R/E/P => R/E/P Archives => j. hall => Topic started by: wireline on March 14, 2005, 02:52:38 PM
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A band I recorded (and perform with) has been offered a distribution deal from a recognizable label (which I'll reveal later...)
We keep all masters and production control, the studio gets all the necessary credits...looks to be a pretty good thing...the contract (still yet to be reviewed by my attorney) looks clean and beneficial to both parties.....
Anyone have any positives/negatives to say about such deals: band keeps their music; distribution label puts it in stores...
Please, all thoughts are welcomed.
K
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sounds good to me. that's exactly what i'd like to score for my own band.
the key thing is having a lawyer review it with a history of understanding deals like this....and aside from the latter, you already mentioned the lawyer part......i'm sure your lawyer will take good care of you.
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Sometimes this kind of thing works. I have found that labels USUALLY push harder the more they have on the table. In this case it's not much so tread lightly and maybe entertain a performance clause for the P&D end of things.
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Well, a lot of this depends. When I had my 3rd party distro deal, it really wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We forwarded tour dates to the dist. well in advance, but discs never showed up in the local stores. Fans were always complaining they couldn't get our stuff. But we were nationwide in Tower. In the end, 5 years later, the dist. tried to return 300 units to me for a refund! Outrageous. The terms on the invoices were Net 180, and he was trying to pull a "Net 1,825" on me.
So it may be great, it might suck. A lot of it depends on how honest and hard-working the distributor is. I mean, in the end, are you going to get paid anything? Will they claim all your profits were eaten up by marketing and promotion? A local label in my town pulls that stunt all the time. They'll put up 10% of the cost (pressing) and then want a 50/50 deal. Then they never pay our anything, citing expenses consumed the net profit.
If it was me, I'd try to get the distr. to buy units outright with a modest reasonable return policy. That way you can't get screwed. You might cut your wholesale a $1 to get their buy-in.
Another thing is, you should at least try to negotiate the terms to include some of what you hope to get out of it. Don't just take what they offer and sign it passively. It should be a two-way conversation.
If they're just going to take "units" on consignment, I'd be wary. Then again, I don't know how hard your band is willing to work. Are you going to hit the road, sleep on peoples floors, live off pbjs, to promote sales at shows? If not, worst case scenario, the dist. is going to get your discs sold in places you'll never be, and you could write it off as a promotional tool.
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Hmmm...
Meeting with my attorney today...and will address these issues (as well as liability clauses, corporate indemnity, etc...)
Cool things right out the chute: we keep everything, they lay no claim to masters, futures, etc...explicitely say they have no artistic control over music/production styles/etc...
This could be hairy - could be cool - all I want to do is engineer and occassionally perform - maybe we (the band) and I (personally) need a manager/legal department/a bunch of people to do just handle these things....and let me mix.