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Making money off your productions
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| meriter |
| I know there are a lot of producers here who have gotten their stuff released on a label. I'm very curious about what the whole process is like. How did you get in contact with the label, what kind of terms were agreed upon, how long it took to get your track(s) pushed through, ect. I'm also very curious about what kind of money there is in this industry, realistically. I always dislike talking about art as a business, but I gotta know. How much on average do you think the artist takes home from a track that gets on the Beatport top 10? What about the other less popular releases? I remember reading a thread a while back about what the top DJ's/producers make, but I'm more interested in what the "average" producer makes from their releases. If you don't feel comfortable talking about it here please contact me through PM. I'd really appreciate some info on this subject. Thank you. |
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| 19503 |
| I have a few releases. havent seen a dime. But I got 200EUR for a remix i did once who ended up as vinyl. thats the only money i have ever got. now im releasing my music myself instead, might just as well cut all middleparts today. |
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| Eric J |
| quote: | Originally posted by meriter
I know there are a lot of producers here who have gotten their stuff released on a label. I'm very curious about what the whole process is like. How did you get in contact with the label, what kind of terms were agreed upon, how long it took to get your track(s) pushed through, ect. I'm also very curious about what kind of money there is in this industry, realistically. I always dislike talking about art as a business, but I gotta know. How much on average do you think the artist takes home from a track that gets on the Beatport top 10? What about the other less popular releases? I remember reading a thread a while back about what the top DJ's/producers make, but I'm more interested in what the "average" producer makes from their releases. If you don't feel comfortable talking about it here please contact me through PM. I'd really appreciate some info on this subject. Thank you. |
I'll give you my short story. The label we release most of our stuff with we have been associated with for over 10 years. We initially got in contact with them my simple putting together a demo CD and mailing it to them. At the time (2001) that was pretty much the standard way of doing things. Nowadays, most labels have drop-boxes or email addresses where you can send demos. Most request that you send a link to the file, and NEVER attach your track as an attachment to an email.
So, for us, we have been working with them for quite some time, and as they have evolved from a physical label into a digital label, they retained name recognition among the big jocks and they have a fantastic promo membership, which gets my music into the hands of the right DJ's.
Each label is going to have different contract terms, but as a new artist, you can pretty much forget about making any significant amount of money from any type of release. The reasons for this are twofold:
1. Because you are relatively unknown, its harder to rise above the noise.
2. As an extension to being unknown, the label has no incentive to offer you much of a contract.
As a new artist, the name of the game is really about getting your name out there. There are rare exceptions to this, of course, but unless you manage to land on a big time label the first go around, your chances of even getting noticed are greatly reduced. The idea is to consistently put out good music, and thus build a fanbase, both among regular DJ's and fans alike.
Do not assume that you will be the rare exception, assume that you will need to have years of hard work and quality releases to get that international recognition, because its the path that most artists have taken.
When choosing a label, you need to find out what their promo system is like. It is important for a label to participate in promo pools that both big time DJ's and not so big time DJ's are a part of. This exposes your music to those guys and is probably the quickest way to get your name recognized. If a big time jock likes your track enough to chart it, and maybe play it on their radio show, it can be a huge boost to your name getting recognized. The bigger shows out there have easily launched the production careers of many artists.
Top ten artists income is a wildly debated subject. There are some estimates that say you need sales of 10,000 or more and others claim only a few hundred will get you in the top ten. This is also dependent on which top ten you are referring to. I've been in the label top ten several times, but I have never cracked the genre top ten (in Progressive House) or the overall top ten. If you look at the records and labels in the top ten lists (genre and overall), you'll mostly big names and big time artists. Again,this is because with so much music being released, its really all about name recognition, and this is reflected by which artists and labels regularly land in the top ten or top 100 even. |
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| adi_hanson |
I was reading some stuff on the top 40 artists and how they genterate more cash through advertising and sponsorship than sales.
It might be a good thing to see people giving stuff away rather than always being money minded.
Give away your stuff man , I am!
Even tho its rubbish!! |
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| kitphillips |
Can anyone give me some tips about how much you can ask for in a contract?
I was wondering if it would be unreasonable to expect a clause saying that if ever the track becomes unavailable for more than 1.5 years the rights revert back to me. In case the label doesn't release it or goes broke or something and I want to try to get the track released elsewhere. And another clause stating that the rights revert back to me anyway after 15 (or something) years. Would a label be likely to agree to that from an unestablished artist? |
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| Richard Butler |
My label claim to big big players and bang on about being the owners of the distribution platform called labelworks but honestly I have no idea if it means didly.
I just emailed a track link and they signed me right away. I tried to haggle text book style but really got no where. The label said they got over 1000 demos per week and signed 1 or 2 of them. Really I was in no great position to start dictating terms - I felt it was better to take the standard contract before they withdrew and signed one of the other 1000 weekly hopefuls.
The release process has taken so far about 5 months and it's only just being promo'd now.
I have sent other tracks but they declined them all so far.
In terms of revenues I strongly suspect it varies widely from person to person just like it does in my businss sphere where one guy doing the same business can make a profit of £200k pa and another £5k pa.
Think about authors - plenty make next to nothing, but some make a decent, even spectaculour income.
I think revenue is a function of the commerciality of the artist. A lot of people are very sniffy about beiing commercial and 'selling out' - throughout the history of art many claim not to want anything to do with commercialism.
Tis the same with film - dark underground arthouse 'right on' films are loved by critics but often make a loss, whereas big sell out commercial films are adored by a simple public and sniffed at by other artistes and critics.
I play my wife and brother a lot of trance tracks that we would admire, but they say it all sounds lame like film music with a beat - nothing special and most importantly they say the tunes have no hook or personality.
I guess a stressed hard working public sometimes just want thier art immediately accesible and dont have time to 'get' it.
Think about food - do you lust after a tiny portion of neauvea beautiful food (say the equivolent of an arty trance track) or more often do you want good ole burger and fries?
Sorry to go off topic there:whip: |
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| Stephen Wiley |
| should email me some of your stuff richard. would love to hear it and maybe get you on board. i can also probably answer a few questions about alter ego and labelworx as well as the man who runs both of them. had a little mix up with him when i went from labelworx to bonzai for distribution and you know how things are always said about one anothers competitor :p |
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| Richard Butler |
| Stephen - just emailed you. I pm'd you in the past but don't know if you ever got them. |
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| Mad for Brad |
| about 90% of the tracks released would not of been released in the vinyl days, People forget that Deadmaus is an underground artist when you look at all genres so if that is what deadmaus is , what are you and how much do you think you should make. There is an oversupply of bad music and most people are not making money because they are part of that supply. Most people releasing are at the same level as those bands that play in a bar once a month with no future prospects. |
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| G-Con |
| quote: | Originally posted by kitphillips
Can anyone give me some tips about how much you can ask for in a contract?
I was wondering if it would be unreasonable to expect a clause saying that if ever the track becomes unavailable for more than 1.5 years the rights revert back to me. In case the label doesn't release it or goes broke or something and I want to try to get the track released elsewhere. And another clause stating that the rights revert back to me anyway after 15 (or something) years. Would a label be likely to agree to that from an unestablished artist? |
On the couple of releases I've had, both had as standard that after 5 years, the rights revert back to me.
Not sure about getting the rights back in a shorter time if the track is not released. I never asked but I can't see why a label would object. |
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| Mad for Brad |
| quote: | Originally posted by G-Con
On the couple of releases I've had, both had as standard that after 5 years, the rights revert back to me.
Not sure about getting the rights back in a shorter time if the track is not released. I never asked but I can't see why a label would object. |
Because they have nothing to gain from it. Perhaps nothing to lose but if you were to give it to another competing label , then why would they consider it. OF course I don't see any label starting a international civil suit over the illegal 100$ beatport earnings so do what ever you want. |
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| G-Con |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mad for Brad
Because they have nothing to gain from it. Perhaps nothing to lose but if you were to give it to another competing label , then why would they consider it. OF course I don't see any label starting a international civil suit over the illegal 100$ beatport earnings so do what ever you want. |
Yes, but as most labels will have every intention of releasing the track relatively quickly (why else would they sign it), I wouldn't have thought they would object to such a clause as it becomes completely meaningless once the track is released. |
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