Does this contract/deal look ok? *Urgent*

[SeanyK]

Im gonna give that deal a miss definately.

I make the music myself at home, including vocals, so I dont see why I should pay for other peoples studio time.
Really all I wanna do is get my name and music out there, and not get ripped off, I guess a distribution deal is probably the best thing?!

[ArneyS]

I've seen my share of trance label contracts and this is by far the worst! Your record would have to sell 1000s and 1000s for you to see any real money, which has become a rarity in this day and age. Given the state of the industry today, I'd most definitely avoid this deal OR demand changes in the contract. Every contract is negotiable, so find out what things you want to change (pretty much everything) and make your demands. If they disagree, you walk, they lose, simple as that.

[Meffy]

Every contract is negotiable, so find out what things you want to change (pretty much everything) and make your demands. If they disagree, you walk, they lose, simple as that.

Words of the uttermost wisdom.

[ArneyS]

Ok let me rephrase that. Every contract I've come across personally was negotiable (prior to signing). If the label wants your record, they most likely would be willing to change the contract, otherwise they are pottentially losing. It's in their best interest to sign you.

[SeanyK]

Is it better to not sign a contract and just try and get my music out there by asking DJ's to play it around the Country etc?

[james0tucson]

Im gonna give that deal a miss definately.

I make the music myself at home, including vocals, so I dont see why I should pay for other peoples studio time.

I'd pay for studio time for a few reasons.

One, if I can benefit from the room itself, or if I get to use a $20,000 mic and preamp in that wonderful room. Or if I get to play a much nicer piano than my own, with those great mics in that wonderful room. You get the idea.

I'd also pay for studio time if having the studio gave me the clout I needed to hire certain musicians who would be more amenable to working with me in the studio than in my unimpressive home studio.

But here's the thing -- I don't consider studio time to be all that expensive. I would GREATLY prefer just paying for it, than waiving any RIGHTS to anyone just so that THEY can pay for it with money they're borrowing from ME. That just doesn't add up, but if you look at the typical recording contract, that's what's going on. They are not *giving* you anything at all. They are taking a risk that YOU might be able to pay for what they're "offering" you. So you have to decide if it's worth surrendering your rights in order to have someone take that risk. Personally, I'd never do it. I'd finance my production with money from my day job, or maybe with borrowed money if I was extrememly motivated and confident of my abilities.

I understand the real world and all that, everybody doesn't have the thousands of dollars it takes to get started on a production, etc., and I also realize I'm more radical than most about this whole "rights" thing.

[Meffy]

Ok let me rephrase that.

No, it was fine as you stated it. I wasn't being sarcastic, I meant it. That's why I highlighted it, so it would stand out.

[james0tucson]

Is it better to not sign a contract and just try and get my music out there by asking DJ's to play it around the Country etc?

More to the point: It's better to understand that the main value of a contract is in the distribution, less so in the production.

Any clown can call the studio service desk and book blocks of time with an engineer and pay the going rate (which you might find to be surprisingly reasonable -- it's just a service industry after all).

But making a market for the product can be quite difficult.

Do you have the kind of connections that puts you in personal contanct with a lot of DJs and/or producers? If you do, then you've surely absorbed enough info that you don't need to be coming on KVR with this kind of question, right?

When I was in production, we knew our whole market place. It extended no further than a handful of local stores and people that went to our shows. Our stuff ended up in catalogs that we never had any idea how that happened, and for a brief time, we could claim to be "big in Japan" because we showed up in catalogs over there when Psychedelic was popular.

But the most we ever spent on any production of vinyl was a little over $2500, late-1980s dollars, much of that being the cost of photography and colour printing!

So we never really got our stuff into a lot of hands, but I realize that's because we were just a bunch of punks playing around, not doing really high quality work in the first place -- not because we didn't have some contract that said someone else would get our money before us. For those records we did sell, we weren't obligated to anybody at all, the money to make them was already sunk, and we never expected anything in return, aside from having records out there. I don't even know who has our master tapes anymore, but I do have one of the "mothers" (record cutting die), a prize possession

And somewhere out there there's a couple thousand copies of "The Evolution by Burnin' Rain" *I* don't even have a copy, and I helped produce the sumbitch.

[james0tucson]

Hey this thread made me realize that I didn't even have a copy of a record I produced. I googled for it, found out Rockin' World had a copy for sale, and bought it.

Thanks!

[_starcraft_]

before listening to your music i would have said NO....no offence, i'm into trance and commercial trance.....but these tunes are just ..hmm...."copycat" stuff.they just have no fresh appeal.
I would sign cos it's better than nothing.

[coldmachine]

As someone who makes thier living from music I can categorically state with no fear of contradiction that that is the worst and most amateur worded contract synopsis i have ever read. It reads like something some bedromm wannabe with no knowledge of the business wrote in order to impress a third party. Totally abysmal.

[SeanyK]

Thats just like saying half the bands that come out might as well give up before they start.
Because, to me, half of them are all copycat stuff.
All these 80's house covers that came out, Eric Prydz, Sunset Strippers, all sound the same.


Im not gonna sign to be ripped off lol.

[SeanyK]

As someone who makes thier living from music I can categorically state with no fear of contradiction that that is the worst and most amateur worded contract synopsis i have ever read. It reads like something some bedromm wannabe with no knowledge of the business wrote in order to impress a third party. Totally abysmal.

And to back your claim up, it was actually done in MS Word, and looks like anyone could have typed it up in seconds lol.

[coldmachine]

Just had a listen. Have to agree with above. I can't see anyone contracting for that. No offence but totally derivative.

[SeanyK]

If your making a particular style, you dont stray from it, else it becomes a different style, simple changes like a drum beat can move it from trance, to happy hardcore.
They all follow a formula, its changed a bit, but never too much, and thats all I've done, my own ideas included.

As said before, why are these 80's looped house covers signed then? Because they ALL sound the same, yet not one is more imaginative than the other.

Several bands, including Oasis, ripped off the Beatles really, and Nirvana even admitted to just ripping the Pixies off!