KVR Audio

esl · Post by **esl** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:34 pm

If one were to sign a deal with a small independent record label to release 2-3000 CD's, after production costs are recouped (of course), what is the current average amount of payment the artist should recieve per album sold?

Any advice would be appriciated.

esl · Post by **esl** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:47 pm

I know I'm talking about a very small amount of product here....
but....

Is a 13% royalty of 90% net records sold OK? Is that standard?

mandolarian · Post by **mandolarian** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:01 pm

13% of what? List or wholesale? And other deductions? Check the fine print. If you are the songwriter then you get the mechanicals which would calculated differently than the 'artist' share.
If you truly get 13% of list after deductions that would be ok. Not great, but ok. But read the fine print. Is this just a distribution deal or are you a signed artist. If the later, did you get a big advance?

stash98 · Post by **stash98** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:10 pm

13 points is pretty darn good..IF you can move around 50,000 units..which is an attainable goal for an indie artist.

stash98 · Post by **stash98** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:14 pm

I reread and saw 2-3k CDs..well in that case, you wol porbbaly make around 3k or so on your own..if you sell eery record.

when you are talking low sales like that, after production costs, you should hope just to break even.

stash98 · Post by **stash98** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:15 pm

oh yeah..get a lawyer, beause no one on here will be able to help you as much as a lawyer.

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:25 pm

stash98 wrote:oh yeah..get a lawyer, beause no one on here will be able to help you as much as a lawyer.

excuse my ignorance but wouldnt getting a lawyer pretty much sap any gains here for such a low run? how much on average does a lawyer run to handle situations like this?

esl · Post by **esl** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:05 pm

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

Yes, I am leaving out a lot of the "fine print"....

We are talking about small numbers here, and this is a deal made between artists/friends, so I just wanted to check to see if 13% was acceptable. Based on your replies, it seems to be OK, along with some kind of an advance.

kritikon · Post by **kritikon** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:02 pm

We are talking about small numbers here, and this is a deal made between artists/friends, so I just wanted to check to see if 13% was acceptable. Based on your replies, it seems to be OK, along with some kind of an advance.

I'm going on experience several years ago in the UK (it will likely be slightly different in each country I'd imagine). Back then 12.5% was considered OK - not amazing, not a rip off either. That was post-costs etc. And the advance was taken into account in that figure - so if they didn't sell, the advance was taken off the % figure. Our first single was an advance of 300 quid with 12.5%. It was a couple of thousand run - the % never really materialised though, so it was basically advance only. i.e. you only get the royalties after the advance has been paid off by the sales profits (after all costs).

You can improve later, depending on how many you sell with the first few.

But I wouldn't be insulted by 13% at all. And having a lawyer look at the contract IS advisable - yes they cost money, but often enough you can find someone who knows someone etc. We got a mate's dad to have a look. There were some horrific clauses in there, but they are often standard and not actually invoked - it's more that they're there for the label to protect themselves if they lose money on you. My one and only stipulation for absolutely any contract is that I would never sign away authorship rights - check that you don't either - publishing rights are different - no label will give you rights to the actual recording unless you're a multimillion seller. Law may well have changed nowadays anway, so that they can't actually syeal authorship from you.

Even a benificent label will have some clauses in its contracts that will make your hair curl if they actually enforced them all upfront. But many just have them as a standard legal device - similar to s/w rights - have you actually read software license agreements? They usually state something like they take no responsibility for any damage caused (even it can be proved that the s/w caused it), they give no guarantee that it will do what it says it does (which is actually contravening many countries' consumer rights), they can take away the license and by default your legal useage of the s/w if and whenever they want to. They do everything short of actually claiming ownership of your own PC!

Yet many of the responsible and good developers use these licenses - they just don't use the nasty bits in the license. Same goes for labels. Unfortunatley you don't necessarily know which are the good labels and which are rthe bad ones until you try (always a good idea to get word of mouth opinions, and if possible, other bands on the label).

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 12:59 am

I have no idea how much we get and even less interest. As long as we get to put the next one I am happy as Larry.

The Chase · Post by **The Chase** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:03 am

i agree with bones. if youre an "idie" artist it shouldnt even matter. I'm expecting to get around zero dollars more my next (first, actually) release, IF it gets released.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:05 am

It depends on the label completely..

and 2-3k = low sales? I'm happy with selling about 55 copies of my latest release!!! I am just in a total hole in terms of promotion because I don't play live and don't know any DJs, magazines, etc..

ross g · Post by **ross g** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:47 am

i don't mean to invade this thread, but has anyone personally, or know of someone who has, established a presence/sold music on the net exclusively? like how people were able to quit their jobs by selling crap out of their garage on ebay? the most inspiring stories i've heard about musicians making it are like master p selling records from his trunk and now he has gold fixtures on his shitter...a few hip hop moguls started that way, but then again they had product people wanted, that's the kicker...i would think if you have a less popular style than out-of-trunk sales could bring, then the net might bring you closer to potential customers...if the idea is to get the music out there and you don't care about sales, what's the problem? i'm totally serious, i want to get my shit out there too, but i'm sure no one is going to give a contract to a fat 42 yo idiot...

rg

zkaudio · Post by **zkaudio** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:20 am

we've done very well w/ my gf's band. Chaning name and moving to large label soon though

zkaudio · Post by **zkaudio** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:21 am

^ titsofrenix.com

How much $$ does an indy artist get per album sold?