Cons Against Signing A Rap Record Deal

Hey whats good... I want to talk to you about record deals.

A lot of my friends are trying to get signed to major labels. I tell them do not do it because I feel in this day and age that is one of the worst things you can do for your music career. The independent movement is popping right now, you can now make tens of thousands and even millions digitally through iTunes or on your own website. In Today's Industry more and more independent music artists than ever are living off of their music and living their dreams.

First ask yourself what is a Record Label? Its basically two things: it is a loan company and a marketing company. They provide you with a loan and they market you to the world. A major label will most likely give you a 360 Deal which means they own rights to your masters, almost all the income made off record sales, shows, and merchandise.

Here is an example of how the shadyness goes down

Lets say an artist goes gold (certified gold = 500,000 units)

Record labels are giving the artist around 13 percent of album sales. So going gold would equal $480,000. Looks like you caking right? Wrong

Lets say the record label invested $100,000 in marketing and promotion now you are down to 380,000.

Now take another 70,000 (For an advance and studio time) now you are down $310,000. Note half of that $310,000 goes into reserve for 2-4 years.

And on top of that 20 percent goes the manager.

So the artist really gets $19,333 for going gold. (That's a raw deal!)

And 2-4 years later if they recouped they get another $63,000. And if you don't recoup you are in debt and the money will be paid back on the second or third album.

Also major labels "shelf" artists who do not want to put out that garbage we hear on the radio. The only music that is selling on a mainstream level is cookie cutter party/dance records. These songs don't have positive intention behind the music its just B.S. put out to make some money. And unless your willing to sacrifice your creative ideas to make those songs you probably wont even get signed in the first place.

All in all you do NOT need the major labels. They take advantage of you and force you to put out the kind of music they say so. What you need is you need a support team, this includes a manager, entertainment lawyer, and an agent. Get a nice promo budget and good music and you can live off music with no problem.

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4 Key Factors To Successful Record Label Management

The recipe for a successful record label, no matter how big or how small, involves many ingredients. Too many to mention here but if you had to narrow it down to the most crucial points you will find the following key ingredients to successful record label management.

Having Talented Music Artists On The Roster,The Resources Available For CD Production,The Power To Distrubte Music Straight Into The Consumers Hands,The Ability And Resources To Successfully Promote Music Artists.

1. Recording Artists

Number one on the list to running a succesful record label is to have a talented roster of music artists. This not only involves finding extremely talented artists with commercial potential but also establishing contracts between the two, where the two party's involved are both happy with their part of the agreement, thus resulting in an extremely harmonious and rewarding relationship.

The contract between artist and label should cover topics such as album production fees and spending budgets, recoupable revenue from sales of tickets, albums and merchandise etc, distribution of music royalties as well as possession of publishing rights and profits.

2. CD Manufacturing

It is usually the role of the record label to take care of the manufacturing of records and Compact Discs. If you are planning on setting up a record label you should be certain to possess the resources available to create and manufacture your artists' music. After all this is an important part of making money for your label. If you are only a small-sized label you can find CD manufacturing plants which will meet the needs of smaller sized record labels and even offer pressing discounts that come with product packaging and art work at affordable rates. Now a days this whole process can be avoided due to the popularity of digital downloads.

3. CD Distribution

Distribution will get a label's music straight into the palms of consumers. Distribution is paramount to earnings for any recording label. With regard to physical goods like CD albums, you must get them straight into retail stores and then directly into the hands of shoppers. With regard to downloadable music, you should make your products there for web sites (such as apple iTunes) which will sell the songs on-line. Direct selling is one other money-making path for a music label in selling their music.

4. Artist Promotion

Promotion is yet another crucial component to generating product sales. The music label utilizes mass media outlets such as music publications, web sites, radio campaigns, live performance tours and private appearances. You should understand the actual demographics for your niche and after that market appropriately. A solid marketing and advertising campaign will enhance ticket and record sales.

If you found this songwriting article interesting and would like to learn some more tips and techniques then why not check out Free Songwriting Tips.

Craig S.

http://www.world-of-songwriting.com/

Professional Songwriter & Musician.

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How to Get a Record Deal the Modern Way

In this day and age, as a struggling musician, singer or aspiring pop star, it can be extremely difficult to get your music noticed by the industry. When it comes to learning how to get a record deal, your choices are even more bleak. Long gone are the days when bands could expect to be picked up by the major players in the industry simply by playing in their local pubs or bars on a Saturday night. No longer can you record a demo or two, post them off in jiffy bags to several record labels and expect to get a telephone call a week later.

The world has become a very different place since the likes of "The Who" and "The Beatles" broke on to our radio stations. It's a digital world. A world of instant communication, social networking and smart-phones. It's a world where in five minutes an artist has the capability to reach an audience on their own by posting a video on YouTube, Facebook or MySpace. From the outset this seems fantastic and many young artists are taking advantage of this on a daily basis. But the truth is, musicians have never been further removed from the record labels themselves. Amongst all this techno-wizardry and superhighway promotion there is a severe lack of available knowledge out there if someone truly wants to learn how to get a record deal.

Getting a record deal isn't just about exposure, it's about targeted exposure. That is where these modern technologies fall down dramatically. Sure you can get three hundred friends to "like" your fan page on Facebook or perhaps even get more than a thousand comments on your YouTube video. But the people that are listening to your music are not the people that hand our the record deals; Record Label A&R executives.

These guys still use the same methods they used forty years ago. They frequent live performances, wait for a buzz to be generated, nurture the artists and mould them in to submission. Until, when the time is right for them, they pounce on the artist and offer them that golden ticket they have always dreamed of.

The trouble is and always has been, getting the A&R executives to have even the slightest interest in your band in the first place. These record labels do not accept unsolicited demo's, meaning that any material you send them, more often than not, will end up in their waste paper bin. They won't take phone calls from anyone other than the top managers the music industry and they will only go to see the bands or acts that have already generated some sort of buzz on the live music circuits.

So just how do you get a record deal in this day and age?

The answer is simple. As with anything in life, persistence in the key to success. Excluding the modern manufactured pop groups that spring up one week and disappear the next, as an artist you need to expect to be in this for the long haul. The only way you will ever make it is by having no fear or rejection and just getting out there and doing it!

Start performing live, get band merchandise made. Finance your own albums and sell them from the boot of your car at gigs. Print off flyer's and hand them out in city centres. Do whatever you can to get people interested. Eventually if you do it for long enough and as long as you good enough and resilient enough to have stuck with it. Someone out there will notice you. That's when the roller-coaster ride begins.

It's a sobering thought and one which scares many an aspiring artist in to giving up on his or her dream. Unfortunately, when it comes to learning how to get a record deal, there is little more to it. Those who succeed are quite simply, the ones who never give up.

Gordon Rankin is an ex-singer/songwriter who had several hits in the early 2000's. He the current CEO of "Get Me Heard", a company who connects artists directly to the record labels and allows them to promote their music and performances.

You can visit their forums and receive free advice on how to get a record deal at http://www.get-me-heard.com/vbulletin4

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Do I Really Need A Record Deal?

It's always been the number one objective of many an aspiring artist to get a record deal. For most bands and solo performers anything less would be unthinkable. After all, what's the point of being in the music industry in the first place if you're not going to secure a license or deal culminating in the sale of records? Getting that label to sign your product is the thing that will change your life and trigger the real launch to your career as a recording artist - isn't it?

The very notion of securing that first record contract may be a conditioning, instilled upon every musician and vocalist from the time he/she first performed in public or strummed a guitar - arguably a conditioning as vital as the life blood coursing through our veins, or getting a driving license. Without it, you're not going to go far. If that is your thinking, you may be in for a shock - a big shock. The prestige of being signed to a record label, and the credibility it carries, may be about to change big time.

If you were to ask me, "is getting a record deal as important today as in the past?" I would answer "yes," but the real question should be, "what can record companies offer in today's markets?" In the days of the physical labels, it seemed to be more "what could artists offer to record companies?" How often did these creative souls (and often their managers) struggle just to get the attention of a&r personnel's interest - assuming they could get a meeting set up at the record company in the first place? If the artist was extremely fortunate, some of the talent scouts, and a&r, would come out and see them perform live. Even then, getting a record deal was still for many, a remote possibility. Many were left "hanging by a thread" while the labels, wanting to hear ever more material, seemed "paralyzed" from making a decision - leaving the artists and their managers in a state of "limbo" while they waited for an answer. It's also a fair point to make that not every artist has great or even good product - okay some being pretty appalling!

Here's the point: the contrast from the old physical approach of trying to get a record deal - to how the new digital labels are bending over backwards to secure your business and your product - (just look at some of the dazzling web sites). Just register, log in submit your product, and you're in! And with that comes danger: faced with so many outlets on the super highway, or should I say, the world's largest global jungle, you have to be more vigilant than ever. The truth is much, if not all the services offered by a record label, can now be done by yourself or, say, your manager. Simply by setting up your own digital label you can then easily distribute, market, outsource and sub license at will. In the last year alone, we have seen changes in the music industry many of the so called experts and strategists would not even have contemplated in the last decade. I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, in what is going to be available to artists, songwriters, producers and anyone else with ambition and drive in the next five years alone.

Dennis R. Sinnott is a music consultant and author with 41 years experience in the entertainment industry. Formerly Head Of Copyright at EMI Music Group in London, and managing director of Christel Music Ltd, he is now a full time consultant offering help and advice to Songwriters, Recording Artists and Professional Organizations in the Music Industry. You can visit his site, at: http://www.christelmusic.com/

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Want to Record Better Music - Wear a Magnet On Your Head

The other day, I was talking to a musician down at the local Starbucks, and he said that he had signed with a "B" rated music label, and he would be producing his first CD and he would go into the recording studio within a few weeks. I asked if he was nervous, and he said a little bit, but he was using a trick that he learned from a friend of his. Apparently there have been research studies from major neurologists at a top university that when the skull is in a magnetic fields the blood in the brain flows better.

He explained it to me this way; the magnetic field helps align the molecules allowing the blood to flow faster, which simulates a blood thinning event. Therefore you get better blood flow when your head is in a magnetic field, and it temporarily gives you clearer thinking than you'd normally expect. I asked him if he thought it worked or if he'd tried it yet. Indeed he told me he had, but he only noted a slight difference, but he didn't feel lightheaded or anything like that.

He did admit that he was able to give perfect timing while recording with the magnet which he was wearing underneath the headset. As the coordinator for a think tank which happens to operate online this does not surprise me, but it is interesting nevertheless for those in the music industry who want to get a slight boost in brain capacity during recordings. Apparently this trick works, and if you'd ever tried it in the past now you know why.

There was a recent research paper online which mentioned the potential use for magnetic fields in one of the neurology journals, suggesting that it had potential benefits for stroke victims or those with major blood clots and heart/blood flow challenges. Who knows maybe musicians and the music industry can learn something from academic medical researchers after all, and those musicians will be able to perform better without using illegal drugs to do it?

Do I personally recommend using this method when recording? I'm not sure I would take the risk, because I don't know enough about it, but it appears to me that if you were to check with a researcher or neurologist they might explain the process a little better to you, and that you could make up your own mind based on the information they give. The only reason I mentioned it in this article is because I thought it was fascinating, and it is something I'd never heard before. Indeed I hope you will please consider this, research it on your own, and come to your own conclusion.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 23,500 articles by mid-day on June 23, 2011 is going to be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off..

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Remembering the Record Store

I wonder if music will evoke the same memories for those growing up today as it did for me and my generation, and the ones before me for that matter. I can look back over forty plus years and pinpoint albums that were crucial to my youth, adolescence and everything before, after and in between. I can remember trips in to Manchester to buy certain records on the day of release, visits to my friend Barry's magnificent record store in Sheffield where I would wade through rack after rack of American imports along with a multitude of other hidden gems. I would bury my head in piles of records for what seemed like hours.

Great shops manned by great staff made my life a lot easier. Their vast knowledge was impressive, they knew what I'd be interested in and were only too happy to help. I wrote a while back about walking in to a record store in Ybor City in Tampa and feeling the thrill all over again, of picking up a record and scrolling through the credits to see who appeared on it, what label it was on. That kind of buzz never goes away and you start to realize how the music business took away the excitement and contributed to people caring less about music. They took away the excitement from those who were ultimately their livelihood.

As the industry changes, evolves, disintegrates the more you grasp on to what made it so unbelievably exciting for us all. There is nothing quite like music to put you in a particular place at a particular time and invariably with a particular person. Whenever I think of a record that was special to me I'm back there dressed in the same clothes doing the same things. We all remember where we were when 911 happened and for people my age where we were when Kennedy and John Lennon were shot. Surrounded with sadness or something to rejoice, music always makes an impact.

I thought it would be worth taking some time out to rediscover some of those magical moments and to re visit some records from my collection. An opportunity to reflect and look at the influence they had on my life. So many of my friends back then became my friends because of the common interest we shared in music. After a lifetime of earning my living from the music industry I often wonder what motivates the people it attracts nowadays, the type of person who goes to work at a record company. Do they feel, as we did back then that they can make a difference? Or is it just a job?

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What's The Best Way To Record Your Album In The Recording Studio?

Playing a live show is an amazing feeling. The energy, the hype, the rush - it's all exhilarating. Everyone is vibing off of each other and the mood and feeling can be perfect. But playing in the studio to make a professional recording is very different. Many bands and musicians go into the studio with certain misconceptions. It's important that you know what to expect when you step foot into a recording studio so you can save yourself time and money. The topic of this article is whether your band should to play live off the floor when recording in a studio or record each instrument separately. This is an area where there is a lot of mythology and a lot of misconceptions.

First of all, for live performances it is extremely importantly for players to have line-of-sight and be vibing off of each other. No one disputes that is an important part of live music at a live show. And, indeed, there are some situations where it's necessary to replicate that in the studio. For example when recording orchestras or jazz ensembles it is very important. But for other styles of music (rock, pop, etc.) it is less important. Even though when creating or writing music together as a band it is a similar sort of vibe, and even historically musicians played live off the floor during the "golden-era" of recording, it is done less so nowadays. The majority of recordings in recent history have not been recorded live off the floor.

An important question to ask is "Is the recording process in the studio similar to jamming or playing a live show?" And the answer is no, in most cases, it is not. Yes you do want a good vibe between musicians and it is a producers job to help replicate that in the studio. Normally, certain instruments will be tracked and recorded separately from each others. For example one day may be drums and the next may be guitars and then finally vocals, layering them on top of each other. You have to be able to trust in your producer to recreate a vibe in the final recording that is similar to a live performance while at the same time using modern recording methods. You may end up being surprised that a number of different recordings when layered and produced professional have an amazing vibe to them and lock together in a certain groove. But for modern recording you need to adapt your playing to a studio environment and develop those techniques to give yourself the best possible final product.

Andrew Yankiwski is a professional audio engineer and owner of Precursor Productions, a Winnipeg Recording Studio.

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