Things taking off for my daughter

[musicegbdf]

Ok those that have seen some of threads in the will know my daughter is just starting her career.

She now has two companies fighting to get her ! She is about to fly out to L A to work in the studio with a big time producer to start work on her first album . They are going to launch her there and not here. They are paying for everything. The people involved are big hitters and multi Grammy nominated , with strings of big hits behind them some that are current selling ones with some very serious big names.

If the album works there are agreed repayments / royalties ,etc. which seem fair to me (looking for a good laywer to check it for me) though it seems fair to me, if it fails there is no financial come back to her. Looks like the album is going to cost around $250K to produce which they are footing the bill for ......

obviously cannot give details but all very exciting. I said if she makes it big forget the Ferrari for me , a nice US strat will do , If it happens to be sitting in a Ferrari that is fine ! Seriously I already know she will only make a small amount on the first album (her friend is a multi album artist so we know the score), but she is getting into the writing and we are going to ensure her royalties are protected.

[axisus]

That is fantastic! You must feel very proud that she has got this far. I'm sure that it's an equal mix of both excitement and scaryness for both of you. I hope all goes fantastically well.

[octatonic]

Ok those that have seen some of threads in the will know my daughter is just starting her career.

She now has two companies fighting to get her ! She is about to fly out to L A to work in the studio with a big time producer to start work on her first album . They are going to launch her there and not here. They are paying for everything. The people involved are big hitters and multi Grammy nominated , with strings of big hits behind them some that are current selling ones with some very serious big names.

If the album works there are agreed repayments / royalties ,etc. which seem fair to me (looking for a good laywer to check it for me) though it seems fair to me, if it fails there is no financial come back to her. Looks like the album is going to cost around $250K to produce which they are footing the bill for ......

obviously cannot give details but all very exciting. I said if she makes it big forget the Ferrari for me , a nice US strat will do , If it happens to be sitting in a Ferrari that is fine ! Seriously I already know she will only make a small amount on the first album (her friend is a multi album artist so we know the score), but she is getting into the writing and we are going to ensure her royalties are protected.

Congratulations to you and your daughter- that is fantastic news.

Definitely get a lawyer to check the finer details.
If they expect to spend £250k on a record (a very large budget in these times) then the record label will absolutely, 100%, expect to recoup.
It is extremely likely that they will want to recoup in what is called a 360 deal which means that your daughters income from all areas of the industry, not just record sales (but including merchandise, live revenue, sponsorship etc).
The only part that usually remains untouched is publishing.
360 deals were put in place because people don't buy as much music these days so the labels want a piece of all areas of an artists revenue.
It is great for the labels but extremely bad for the artists in the long term.
It won't just be the first album they seek to recoup.

I have friends in one of the biggest UK bands of the 90's.
They are massively in debt to their label and the only thing keeping them on the road is they don't have a 360 deal so the label can't touch their touring and merchandise revenue.
They haven't been paid anything significant from their label for record sales for years and they have to keep touring or they would be broke.

Im not saying any of this to bum you out- it is a great step to be taking but just make sure she doesn't sign anything until you've had a lawyer advise you.

Good luck.

[musicegbdf]

Congratulations to you and your daughter- that is fantastic news.

Definitely get a lawyer to check the finer details.

It is extremely likely that they will want to recoup in what is called a 360 deal which means that your daughters income from all areas of the industry, not just record sales (but including merchandise, live revenue, sponsorship etc).
The only part that usually remains untouched is publishing.
360 deals were put in place because people don't buy as much music these days so the labels want a piece of all areas of an artists revenue.
It is great for the labels but extremely bad for the artists in the long term.
It won't just be the first album they seek to recoup.

I have friends in one of the biggest UK bands of the 90's.
They are massively in debt to their label and the only thing keeping them on the road is they don't have a 360 deal so the label can't touch their touring and merchandise revenue.
They haven't been paid anything significant from their label for record sales for years and they have to keep touring or they would be broke.

Im not saying any of this to bum you out- it is a great step to be taking but just make sure she doesn't sign anything until you've had a lawyer advise you.

Good luck.

It is a production deal which includes writing and studio time. The royalties will be split between the co writers (including my daughter) The production company is footing the bill and studio time is $1300 per day , and if the album sells they take the production advance from the record company to cover the production cost. They will also market her to the record companies and get the deal. It make come in at less than this , but the travel costs for her and the writers come in at £10k for a week .

If the deal works they get 15% of the the 360 , but I have excluded acting on stage /tv/film as she already has representation for that. If nothing works they have agreed to destroy the masters and she has no financial obligation. They are basing it on a deal with Rihanna .

I understand the industry standard is a minimum 3 year deal with the record companies with usually a 3 to 5 album agreement , but again we will get advice. They have even offered to pay for a lawyer for us if needed. What we have to be careful of is this is going to be US law. You are right this is both exciting and scary. The problem we now have is other people are hassling her who want to "manage" her. I will let her sign nothing , and warned her not to agree anything by email/facebook /text as that could be construed as a contract. I told her to get on with the music and leave the rest to me. I have already put out feelers to find lawyers and later I will look for accountants and we may need taxation advice. I am thinking of creating a company and for her to be a "employee" on a wage and a shareholder , again the protect her......

[octatonic]

It is a production deal which includes writing and studio time. The royalties will be split between the co writers (including my daughter) The production company is footing the bill and studio time is $1300 per day , and if the album sells they take the production advance from the record company to cover the production cost. They will also market her to the record companies and get the deal. It make come in at less than this , but the travel costs for her and the writers come in at £10k for a week .

If the deal works they get 15% of the the 360 , but I have excluded acting on stage /tv/film as she already has representation for that. If nothing works they have agreed to destroy the masters and she has no financial obligation. They are basing it on a deal with Rihanna .

I understand the industry standard is a minimum 3 year deal with the record companies with usually a 3 to 5 album agreement , but again we will get advice. They have even offered to pay for a lawyer for us if needed. What we have to be careful of is this is going to be US law. You are right this is both exciting and scary. The problem we now have is other people are hassling her who want to "manage" her. I will let her sign nothing , and warned her not to agree anything by email/facebook /text as that could be construed as a contract. I told her to get on with the music and leave the rest to me. I have already put out feelers to find lawyers and later I will look for accountants and we may need taxation advice. I am thinking of creating a company and for her to be a "employee" on a wage and a shareholder , again the protect her......

I'm seeing more and more of these sorts of deals.
I can't blame the production companies for doing it but they must have a lot of faith in your daughter to be spending this amount of coin.
It is a moderately high risk venture for them.

So they take all of any record company advance plus 15% of the 360?
Importantly, does this include publishing?
Does your daughter get paid a retainer of any sort?

£10k a week is at the upper end of the rates that writers are charging (although I know this includes your daughters travel but this is only a few grand)- I bet you are getting the very best out there.

You did well do exclude active on stage/film/tv etc.
Sounds like you have your head switched on here- good luck with it.

[musicegbdf]

We have not yet got anything in writing just exchange of emails. However that is the jist of it. The production company will only take the production advance not all of it , and will be for a pre agreed rate. The publishing rights to be split with the songwriters/my daughter . I think maybe the £10k includes the $1300 per day. Both of the songwriters she is travelling with are femail, and been in the business for some time . The producer is also a songwriter and musician. Some of his songs are very big , including current ones with this years grammy winning artists... My daughter has been working with the two ladies off and on for about 18 months and put together the demos that got the producer involved.

I will know better when I see the deal in writing, but we have in writing from them that at the end of the first week if my daughter is not happy they tear up any agreement and destroy the masters. At the moment it seems the are being fair , and just want to get started working together.

[BucketheadRules]

Awesome news!

Best of luck to her.

[gatheredinsong]

Sounds exciting. Like others have said though, get a respected, experienced music lawyer - working for you and sourced by you rather than them - involved asap. If it's a genuinely good deal that the lawyer takes seriously then maybe you can even negotiate not paying the lawyer upfront, if your financial situation makes this a consideration. You can find lawyers online, research who represents big popular artists or try the MU or someone like that. Best of luck and remember us when you can't fit any more guitars in the house.

[musicegbdf]

Sounds exciting. Like others have said though, get a respected, experienced music lawyer - working for you and sourced by you rather than them - involved asap. If it's a genuinely good deal that the lawyer takes seriously then maybe you can even negotiate not paying the lawyer upfront, if your financial situation makes this a consideration. You can find lawyers online, research who represents big popular artists or try the MU or someone like that. Best of luck and remember us when you can't fit any more guitars in the house.

Ok I have managed to be in touch with him and the contract will come to me tomorrow hopefully . She flys out on 10th , but I have told them she will sign nothing until I give the green light.

He has actually said I MUST have legal advice otherwise the contract is not valid. He has instructed his lawyer to keep it as simple as possible , but as she is a UK citizen and he is American this apparently makes it a little more complicated..
Do any of you pro's out there have a recomendation . I found this big company http://www.leeandthompson.com/ and yes I do not have the money for big lawyers fee's (nor do she as she is currently a minimum wage waitress) , but will find the money from somewhere.

I'm hoping they offer lower fees for catching acts early ...

[ManWithoutSkin]

He has actually said I MUST have legal advice otherwise the contract is not valid.

This is true, usually a record label would cover the cost of their acts lawyer when signing them as otherwise the contract between them is not binding and the artist can easily walk away from it.

I'd recommend Nicky Stein at Clinton's, he's been nothing but good to my band since working for us.

http://www.clintons.co.uk