Record Producer’s Industry (good read)
Posted: December 14th, 2009 by Khoa Le in Advice Corner, Behind the Scenes, Business | 1 Comment »
Below is a brief description of what the producer’s have to endure from the business aspect of the game. The A&R who wrote this Article is “Conrad Dimanche”. He talks about “producer contracts, up-front/back end fees, royalties, technology and everything else in between.”
Here’s a brief description of what he has to say:
Ok let’s get right into it. Once the track is confirmed to be on the artist album what happens next?
Well first we have to go into negotiation and come to an agreement on how much the track or the song is going to cost. How much the label is going to pay for the track depends on who the producer is and what caliber of producer he/she is. When I say caliber I’m not referring to how dope they are but their track record as far as singles hitting the charts. You have some producers that have been in the game for over ten years but they’ve always had album cuts only. It doesn’t mean too much, just because you’ve been in the game for 10 years and have been on 20 albums doesn’t mean you automatically have the right to charge $40,000 a track. You have producers that have been in the game for 15 years and are still getting $12k-15k a track because they can always give you that dope album cut but it’s the singles that really make your price rate jump up.
Understood, so after the price is agreed on what’s the next step?
So lets say the cost is $5k and everybody is good with that, the producer then submits an invoice for $5,000 and before they get paid they have to sign what is called a ‘producer declaration’ which is also called a ‘work for hire’ or in some cases the producer will sign a deal memo. Before they get paid the producer is agreeing that they’re not going to sell that particular track to anyone else. The whole point of the producer signing the producer declaration is to get the first half payment. The agreement is simple, usually one sheet and within 30 days of signing the producer should receive the front end which in this case would be $2,500.
At this point has the producer turned over the music files to the label?
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