DJ
and Electronic Music Production
Project
management
Simon Adair
Contracts
As
an eventuality of any mutual project between a partnership to create
a music product/event, a contract has to be written up as a recorded
agreement between the partners.
But
why is a contract necessary even for a small business venture,
especially in the music industry?
The
answer is that no matter how well you know somebody, debates and
arguments will always arise in the future as to the planning and
execution of the collective project. A contract puts some constraint
on individuals within the project to enable fairness and prevent
one-upmanship.
The
contract is also a guideline to prevent deviation from the original
project by the distributor or label and can be used as a guideline
for the misuse of a musical product i.e.- preventing your distributor
from putting subliminal ads for Cilit-Bang in your IDM music video.
Last
but far from least a contract between artist(s) and label also
stipulates how much ownership of the product an artist has and how
much in royalties the artist is entitled to.
Product
ownership is an interesting one because “100% of nothing is a lot
less than 17% of a big company”- FundersandFounders.com- how to
fund a start-up.
This
statement basically justifies the artist ''selling out' to the ''big
label'' out of a desperate need to be famous very quickly.
However
in music there is no such thing as short cuts.
So
broken down all these uses of a contract between artist and label are
as follows;
- Terms of use for materials produced by the artist to prevent 'Product Placement'.
- Royalties based on the legal ownership of the product by the artist, if something is played it must be paid.
- Ownership. Basically how much power does the artist have over they're own product whilst having it distributed by a label.
In
my own case I must have a gentleman's agreement with my business
partner and draw up a contract that will benefit us both equally and
allow for as much creative and independent autonomy as possible. This
would then be the contract given over to a distributor for
consideration.
If
however We go completely 'indie' we will have more creative freedom
but possibly less funding and resources and make a written contract
redundant.
The
negative side of contracts.
Contracts
used in the music industry more than any other industry are prone to
being unfair, unbalanced and creatively stifling. The worst cases and
the worst offenders are the big labels. The more powerful the label
and the newer the artist, the more unbalanced the power between the
two can become.
In
short a contract with a big label is not to mutual benefit and sees
to much balanced in the favour of the label. This can happen when the
artist is new to the game and wants as much publicity as possible
with they're music. So they will jump at a chance at being signed
with a big label without reading the small print.
This
is where having a lawyer to check over the contract is a necessity as
being contracted to a label that 'owns' you is a form of indenture.
Eventually
the artist will begin showing signs of resentment and rebellion. Some
even go to court with they're own label. A classic example is the
conflict between Prince and his label. This lead to his publicity
campaign with changing his name to a symbol out of frustration with
his label.
In
my personal opinion artists getting into conflicts with they're
representative labels should have; A. had a better lawyer and B. read
the contract properly and demand more autonomy.
Referencing/reading
material:
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