Hopefully you guys can help me with this. Exposure/royalties would be nice, but not if it's gonna kill me.
Shortly after I posted one of my tracks to a soundcloud group, I was contacted by some Australian record label called "Bang the Beat Records" ( http://bangthebeatrec.com ) and this is what they said:

quote:

Your song 'Flight To Eridanus' was forwarded to us by one of our employee's who's job is to source new talent for release's and future work. We like what we have heard and would be interested in licensing and releasing this song.

After I replied, a week later they sent me the contracts and paperwork to sign (in pdf form).
I haven't signed anything because i'm concerned I might be getting scammed. For one thing, I live in California, so it seems a bit weird that some little Australian label would want my song (which isn't amazing to begin with). Second, some links on the website seem to be broken or empty, namely "Artists" and "Events". I also can't seem to find their name on any lists of Australian record labels and google searches only turn up their profiles on music sites.

I did a whois lookup for the site and the same individual's name is on everything. http://www.networksolutions.com/who...gthebeatrec.com For Registrant Detials, Admin contact details, and Technical Contact details, "Daniel Phillips" is listed for all of them. Strangely, one of the artists the label has signed is "DJ Danny P" and the person who sent me the message on soundcloud identified himself as Danny.
Now, the label describes itself:

quote:

Bang the beat records is a fresh label set up to push the infectious sounds that may not normally be heard outside of nightclubs. Established in 2010 meaning its only a young label, but with musical knowledge behind it combined spanning decades with an acute ear for what makes you want to dance.

The whois lookup on the site confirms this as

quote:

Creation Date.......: 2010-04-08 00:00:00

My number one concern is the following line in the Recording Agreement:

quote:

Each composition and Master shall be subject to our approval as being commercially and technically satisfactory for manufacture and sale. If the delivered Master has not been Professionally Mastered the Record Label will have the delivered Master done so by their Mastering Engineer at a cost of $150 per track.

Another part of the Agreement says:

quote:

You agree to indemnify and hold us... harmless from and against any liability, damage cost and expense (including reasonable attorney's fees)... arising out of any claim inconsistent with any agreement... made or assumed by you.

So if i was getting scammed, I beleive this part frees them from liability or lawsuit

On the other hand, they agree to pay a whopping 50% of their profit for all royalties from sales, synchronization, etc.
My thoughts on what might happen: I sign the crap, send it in along with my track, they recieve it and then charge me 150$ because it's not professionally mastered. A lawsuit would be far more than $150, and the company would withhold all profits equal in amount to whatever the suit costs them. Assuming I just go with it and pay the 150, I'm now out $150 bucks with no rights to my track, and it would take forever to earn enough royalties to recoup the 150.
What should I do??
My soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/user2409554
Their soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/bang-the-beat-records

dont even bother, everyone and their little brothers are opening up digital labels. get signed to respectable label and if they are, they will handle your mastering, and no, they wont ask you money for it. you dont really gain anything when you sign with a label like this. i highly doubt you will get even half your mastering costs at a 50/50 deal with them. now you want a lawsuit over this? welcome to online mp3 sales with a flooder label that has no guarantees of paying you those small amount of dollars at the end of the day. my 2cents. also, dont be emo, k.

Don't sign anything without talking to an entertainment lawyer, first. I'm not as concerned with the parts of the contract that you did show me as I would be with the parts not disclosed. That said, you probably shouldn't sign a contract with that indemnity clause, which is probably going to be found in any first contract a label would send you.

Also, 50% sounds like a lot, but it really isn't that much, unless you're selling a lot of records. Even though it seems like they made an open declaration on profits, how much operating costs infringe on their profit margin could mean that they're only splitting 50% of total revenues after Costs of Goods Sold, taxes, and other operating expenses "attributable" to your work have been deducted.

Did you check for a web-presence on Audiojelly or Beatport? It seems like you did a fair amount of research work, trying to find them as an established label, and what you found was, at best, a fledgling label having trouble running their web-site. The fact that you're not convinced about the song's quality sounds like they could have just been spamming sound-cloud accounts to see who will bite.

Go with your gut on this, dude. Don't sign anything. Even if it's not fishy, it still sounds like they don't know what they're doing and that could fuck you, too.

FWIW, I'd love to have a copy of that contract to look at, myself. I'm not a lawyer but I'd like to see the standard fare of what an artist can expect to be encountered with, as he or she signs with a label. PM me if you can send me a copy but I quite understand, if you can't.

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Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

the holy bible says, "a simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to this steps."

Thanks for the feedback guys, it helps me in my decision making
EddieZilker: PM sent

I agree with Eddie. Even if it's not a scam, they're incompetent. No-win situation imo.

Last edited by david.michael on Aug-29-2011 at 14:17

quote:

Originally posted by Andyman3k Thanks for the feedback guys, it helps me in my decision making EddieZilker: PM sent

Just glancing over it, I can tell you it suffers from an incomplete proof-reading for grammatical errors and a lot of murky language. I was right about the profit sharing - that it's 50% after expenses have been deducted. Even if it were a firm of Armada's stature that had sent me this contract, I wouldn't sign it without having an entertainment lawyer, familiar with Australian legal code, negotiate for better terms pertaining to the artist. A lot of it looks like they copy and pasted an anachronistic legal contract as there are clauses pertaining to record advances only basically struck through with parenthetical advice that they don't apply. Do not sign this.

___________________

Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

In other words.... it's not worth bothering with. Seems to be a recurring theme with all these useless digital labels.

Why would you want to release on a shitty unknown label anyway? If that's the only kind of label that you can manage to have your track signed to, the track is probably not worth releasing in the first place.

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My Soundcloud Page | The Free Soundcloud Stuff Thread

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Levels is...decent...damn better than a lot of the shite dominating the charts at the moment. It sounds absolutely nothing like...a billion and one similar tracks in this big-room style. I always had a soft spot.

quote:

Originally posted by Adam420 Why would you want to release on a shitty unknown label anyway? If that's the only kind of label that you can manage to have your track signed to, the track is probably not worth releasing in the first place.

You read my mind

Yeah, it's a scam in the sense that you pay and get nothing.

Not even worth the time to investigate it.