All About The Music Business

In this article I am going to offer some pointers that can help identify the good deals that come our way:

When a music business deal takes you into a new territory or brings you into a new market; great, consideration needs to be given to it. In other words even when a deal does not offer you what you might consider to be great terms you should still consider the deal. Why? As a new artist, you need all the help you can get when it comes to exposure and opportunities. I am not suggesting giving away your product but at the same time you are not YET a Beyonce or Iron Maiden so be aware that you are in the process of progress.
Let me say this; sometimes people teach textbook concepts that have no place in the reality of how a business works in practice. Let us take an example. If you are given a contract to a territory like the USA without an advance you might say that such a deal should be avoided. But if you are a new artist and the offer is from a credible label you seriously need to give it some thought. One may look to get better royalty rates; better option terms or get the company to pay for a flight ticket and book some gigs. These could be some ways to offset the 'No Advance'. Someone might ask 'why should I do that?' The answer is simple. If nobody knows you in the USA and a company is going to put up some funds to publicize you as an artist; you will be reaching new fans. The point I am making is never turn up your nose on a deal just because it doesn't look good outwardly, always think about making it work before you give up on it.

Obviously a deal that is just an outright robbery should not be considered.

However, even artists can sometimes ask for ridiculous sums of money which is just a sign of naivety rather than good business sense. How much of an advance can a new artist get? First, it depends on who the record company or music business is. If you are talking to an Independent label with ?100k turnover then asking for a ?50K advance is simply ridiculous. If on the other hand they were a Major Label asking for ?50K could be the way you are choosing to gain their commitment!

Another factor to consider with this example could be for us you to understand your selling potential. Here is what I mean. If you have hardly sold any units or downloads you do not know your own potential. Here is where a lot of artists might even sell themselves short. The point is if you sold 10k units on your own and a label becomes interested you already know they could sell 5 times as much. With such knowledge you can ask for advances that reflect 20-30K units of sale.

The point is: think carefully before you say no!

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