So pretty much if you sign a label you’ll have to maintain steady “hits “ until your contract is fulfilled If you own your masters you’re pretty much your own boss and don’t have to answer to nobody
This just feels to me like more of a testament to how labels are becoming outdated as we move into the digital age where self made is much more possible and realistic.
I appreciate you man. You take this somewhat complicated shit and spin it so that it's very easy to understand and you talk as if it's a conversation, not like a rehearsed lecture or something like that. I'm definitely a fan man
Would love to see a video where you discuss any kind of record deal where artists don't get screwed or how to make sure you negotiate it so you come out better on the other side. Maybe that doesn't really exist. I haven't heard of any record deal where people don't get the piss taken out of them.
Protip: you don't have to sign a record contract to promote your music. But if you do there are stipulations. When you sign that record deal you are getting marketing and connections. There is value in that.
My Label Deathstar Cult Ltd does not offer advances. But, we do have a 50-50 split for the artist on all royalties. We also have a buy back option in the contract to protect the Artist. They can give us 500$ plus any un recovered cost and the master belongs to them again. No one has exercised the buy back option because we have so many things of value we offer them But in the chance their track goes viral they can drop some cash and own their track. It makes it harder for us as a company to make $ but its a good look in this quickly evolving scene. And at the end of the day we are in this business out of love of Music. The owners are all Musicians as well and we sign the exact same contracts the artists do. I wont give a contract to anyone that I myself wouldnt sign
@@DamianKeyes honestly the word in our circle is that Covid is the best thing to happen for us in a long time. Its allowing us to posture ourselves and blast past tons of gatekeepers. We have over 60 artists and everyone is collaborating and instructing each other in our Discord. We have a family vibe and everyone is really good about supporting eachother. We see this whole pandemic as an opportunity to build the core fan base and get ourselves prepped and ready to rip when this all eventually passes. Everyone is itching to hit the road again still. We are about to follow Subsidias lead and drop a big compilation of over 50 tracks along with a merch line at our 1 year anniversary February 23rd. Prior to this there was such an over saturation in the scene that we didnt feel like we had a chance. But now we feel we do.
Important video, but you inadvertently still made it look better than it is, because you did not mention that all the recoupment comes out of your 15% of royalties, not out of the 100% of gross sales.
Awesome video, Damien! As an “oldie Indie” musician, I can understand how thrilling and seductive a record contract can be for a young artist. Yet everyone should be very skeptical of any contract, music, your house, your car, anything. I have a few suggestions for artists.One, take a class in music contracts (I realize Damo doesn’t want to , but he has already arrived!) Two, if you get a contract, don’t commit, listen and either study and take notes and then use that to get your own investors. Make sure the money is spent together , and you take a small salary and hire your own publicist, etc. (paying for a company to advertise on tv and social with your music is one way to go!) three, ask the label to put a good number on the cost, then tell them to keep the advance and have no recoupables in the contract. Four, why couldn’t you hire a recording studio and have session musicians record your songs on your own, parallel but totally separate to the record companies recording. This way you would have your own masters with the same flavor and timing as the ones for the record company. And last, spend some of your own money and take three to five years (same time a college degree would take) and utilize Damiens and other music promotion sources and invest in yourself to market and be totally independent. It is a brave new world where teens and young adults are making 20 minute videos on RUclips and killing it financially. While having no real skills or experience, but a hunger and curiosity, and are willing to put in the work. Believe in yourself and do it on your own first, the. Contracts will be easier to handle and deal with. Thanks for the videos, Damo!
No, see they won't agree to going to any old studio, you have to use their audio engineer that they are friends with that charges the price he names. You can't go to Billy Bobs studio. That stuff matters. *"We're going to make you famous Taylor Swift," -"hold on, can I keep my masters and record at a place in Georgia?" -"Get outta here"
@@DamianKeyes He's a friend of a friend and as far as i know, his dad was in a big band in France back in the day. He (pops) advised him to license rather than sign away. Daft Punk are still regarded as the Gods of Electronic music.
I read that even when Daft Punk spent a lot of time in very expensive recording studios for Random Access Memories, they paid for it them selves. It was a pretty good idea, considering how well that album turned out.
I own all my music - I make all the music, write the lyrics, record, mix, master.... Still make no money from my music... One reason for this is without a doubt the fact that no one else makes money if my music sells... No one else has an interest in me having success because I am the only one who will be paid. So, there are definitely advantages to others making money from your work - because they will move the asses to do some essencial work... I have to do all the work, and it is so hard to have to do it all - especially the promotion part. As an artist, my focus should be the art - yet so many of us have to do the job that is specific to 10 people or so... Its a tough tough career to make it a success.
A lot of that was kind of old news, but apparently there's still people who don't know. Both Steve Albini wrote about it back in the '90s (The Problem With Music), and what he wrote back then is sadly still quite relevant today.
So do you just suggest an artist giving a label their masters in a record deal? I don't know much I assume you get a much higher advance if they own your master but in the long you could've probably made much more if you kept it for a lower advance
Music studio doesn't do any marketing... A music studio is where you record and create a song with a microphone and beats that's it. Music studio has nothing to do with marketing.
I have watched a number of your videos and you provide some very good content. This one is largely no different but I do take exception with some of the language and terms used. You state advances are loans that need to be paid back hence referring to them as a debt. Loans are obliged to be repaid, advances are not. Recouped against sales sure, but not repaid. Stating that the advances and recording costs are a debt can suggest than an artist may need to sell off their house and possessions to repay the debt should they not sell enough records. This is not the case. Many of the most successful artists do not recoup their recording deals and simply take up additional advances as they work through option periods on their recording contract.
Wow thank you very much for sharing this. You’ve made some things a lot clearer and also confirmed some thoughts about how the music industry works. Much appreciated. New subscriber by the way. Thanks 😊
Thanks for that cool and somehow depressing vid! 3 questions: 1. Would you then recommend for any young / starting artist to not send finished music to a major label anymore at all? 2. And are there major label contracts that won't want to own your master still? 3. Would you recommend to invest the money by yourself for a pro engineer in advance of sending out "your best" demo (or does a landr master do the job and if the label likes it you would do that)? Ive seen that in another video too and it kind of makes me feel like not wanting to make music anymore at all.. because for what.. having a chance of getting broke or competing against an algorithm on spotify..or alternativly not being heard at all? Anyways, thanks for the vid!
Damn, I was so early this time I was actually first (no comments displayed). To be fair, this is a pretty sensitive subject. As someone who does everything on my own, I have no worries about who the owner of the masters is, but it does help when I will inevitably need to record at another place different than my own (y'know, vocals and stuff). Apparently, I need to be careful to not get duped into something. Thanks for the valuable information. Keep'em coming :D.
Dude, you can go record in a pro studio and not be on a label. I work in pro studios with a professionnal producer, but I'm still owning all my masters. It basically comes down to who's paying the bills, not the actual place where you record!
@@AndrewMilnerMusic when you're ready to release, pretty much every digital distributor out there will sort you out with all you need (ISRC, UPC, collecting money from sales and streams, etc). In the case you did/paid for everything and never signed a contract (digital or otherwise), you own everything. Most likely the whole 21,58$ of it, but hey! Best of luck to you!
Kanye is a great example because he went from selling on tapes/vinyl (ghost production for JayZ) to CDs for his first 4 albums to now digital. So his contract really shows how outdated they can be.
Hey Damian, good video. Would an appropriate analogy be that this practice is akin to paying off a mortgage on your house, only for the bank to say "hey, we still own your house, keep paying us."? As for the "360 deals" I've heard about similar things in other industries. I have a friend who's a software engineer and he told me that his contract with the company he used to work for had a clause that basically said "any software that you write while employed by us belongs to us, even if it's not related to what we do and even if it's written outside of work on your own time." Pretty crazy!
Thanks for the information. A few of the videos have made into my company chat room. And from they, directly into our company’s narrative which ultimately helps to strengthen our value add to the public. Thanks man. Much appreciation.
Only exception correct me if im wrong. When your doing library sync music strictly for tv and film and they pay some advance, with keeping your writers, usually they own masters for compete solicitation and rights to full use of song worldwide. Owning masters is great however if you have specified music not releasd but for show or big network cues , this would be the case. However self published work for sure own 100%
Ye absolutely does have the best discography in hip hop history. BY FAR. In fact, he probably has the best and most untouchable discography in music, period. Across all genres. The only one who I think could be beyond him in this is MJ. And that’s solely because of songs that became cultural moments like “Billie Jean,” “Man in the Mirror”, “Thriller”, “Smooth Criminal “, “Remember the Time”-which all outlived their own time and contemporaries. Outside of that, I’d be interested in someone (who actually knows Kanye’s discography & journey in depth) offering an objection to this... Just like MJ, the media has made a scapegoat and buffeting clown out of him but his discography is a modern monument that will likely go under-appreciated until another generation.
Labels are about to be more and more irrelevant in the coming years as the ability to promote yourself via social media is becoming increasingly more and more prevalent
Great tips! A number of artists like Sir Paul McCartney, the Bee Gees (Sir Barry Gibb and the estates of his brothers Robin and Maurice), and the late Ray Charles have owned their masters, and I would love to see Kanye and other artists do the same for their masters.
Great video! When you are a new artist, you definitely need a bigger distribution/promo and that's why so many artists give up masters to trade off. What if you duplicate a master, let's say, with different mixing technics (or just cut the sub 1hz), do they also own that master? Or now you have your own version of master? Would love to get some insights!
Brilliant info. I didn't know some of that info but now I do. Cheers Damo. If major labels don't change in the end it's best to stay independent. If you do have a hit then people will come to you like festivals, tv appearances and so on.
I think the main problem is the share percentage of profit between the artist and the label.if the share is 60-40. 60 for artist and 40for the label . I thinks thats fair for both of them because they need each other.
Put the credit where it belongs. Prince stood up to Warner Brothers to get his Masters into his ownership. Also, unlike others Artists, Prince did not incur costs to WB. He wrote, arranged and produced all his music. He played all instruments and sang harmony as well as vocals. He only needed a studio hired and an engineer to help him, not to engineer though. Then he built his own studio complex and did everything at Paisley Park. WB did not have many costs with Prince but didn’t credit Prince for his extra involvement. When Prince changed his name to a symbol to negate his contracts signed as Prince, everyone thought he was mad. The action of changing his name to a symbol was bringing to the public, attention as to what was happening to musicians and ownership of their intellectual property. Prince was ahead of anyone in trying to bring to the public how the music industry was involved in the theft of intellectual material long before that was a known term. WB apparently owed him $700,000,000 for overcharging but they rest easy now following his death?
No..... you do need to know.. putting your faith in a lawyer is just like putting your faith in a label.. knowing what a lawyer is looking for on a basic level means you can notice if the lawyer is accustom to the way the label contracts work and think it’s fine.... it’s lawyers that have created and facilitated these contracts for years so you need to be watching them too:. even when it is your lawyer and not (obviously) the label lawyer
That is a high level of paranoia. Have you ever tried to read a major label contact? I suggest you go try and read Kanye’s 100 pages he posted and see what sections you understand. You need to find a lawyer you trust because if you try and do this yourself you will be another broke musician paying the labels for your art
I think the breakages for vinyl will be staying in the contracts if artists release on vinyl. 10% isn't so much for store promos, i'm sure some stores still do this.
I've got to be honest, I think it's fair. From an industry standpoint, you want the labels to be making loads of money from their top artists because then they will take risks, risk means musical diversity, smaller artists getting big deals, labels signing more artists. It's generally good for the whole industry. From an artist perspective, a label can take you from essentially nothing to something, all of my favourite modern rock bands had their first release backed by either sony or warner brothers. Pretty much all of them, a couple have other smaller labels but are not as big as a result. A record label can make something like royal blood, take them from night club gigs in 2013 to a number 1 album, playing reading in 2015 and supporting the foo fighters, a label can make nothing but thieves, from doing a cover of the show must go on for RUclips to releasing their first ep, first album and then supporting muse. I saw both of these bands in the o2 arena last year sold out, and supporting them were the amazons (universal) and yonaka (warner brothers), two up and coming rock bands on major label deals, I personally as an artist very often look at who releases my favourite up and coming band's records, if they are slightly bigger, it is one of the big three and has been since the start, if they're a bit smaller, they're still signed to one of the big 3, I personally can't see another way to grow as a rock band realistically without one of the big 3 in your corner, and by in your corner I mean trying to make money out of you, because if you play your cards right, them trying to take money will elevate your personal brand. Many people say that you don't need a label nowadays, but I'm yet to see a rock band truly prove this, a few artists from other genres have, but in terms of rock, it hasn't been proven as far as I'm aware.
So true, at the same time, isn't it nearly impossible to reach such sales, visibility and opportunities without the 'help' of the majors? That does not mean they will own your masters though
It's lucky to be a producer who learns how to master. And additionally to not be signed to a major label. You always have the finished piece as your own. It's easier to safe yourself when sh** breaks out.
Having an engineer master your work, and signing a 'master' to a label is a different thing mate. You can mix/master your own track, but the label still owns the master if you sign it to them. The same goes for if you get someone to master your work, they don't automatically own a piece of it.
i think the 'msters' issue came to light with all that episode of Taylor Swift and the re-recordings she is still working on. Since then I've been getting informed about the topic and it has been really interesting!
OKay, Mr Damien, can you please explain to me how on Earth is it possible for a rap recording to cost 3 million to record it in a studio? I mean, it's not like Ron Nevison is going to produce it, and it's not like Kanye would have to record rhythm guitar one string at a time ( Mutt Lange, Hysteria, remember)... so, what's the catch?
He didn't say that. 3 mil is the advance. That's the label saying, "Here's your money to live off until we recoup and you start earning a royalty share from this again". But, as Damien said, that 3 mil is separate from the cost of recording and promotion (which is massive for a big album), the cost of sleeve designs, all the promos, etc which are going on your bill too.
Joe Chapman true. And embarrassingly you probably only get like £100,000 out of that to keep!!! And as you know , most artists get more than that off of Spotify
🧐The other issue is that before you could recoup your cost by selling 1 million PHYSICAL copies💰. Now because of Spotify labels own a percentage of Spotify knowing that they have also reduced how much artists receive per DIGITAL play. This now makes it almost impossible for artists like Kanye, Rihanna etc to recoup from recording costs🥺. The contracts are completely outdated because labels know artists can’t make the money back! Even worse when you’re in a boy band like Brockhampton, Britney Spears (who doesn’t write her biggest hits) etc. Those splits must be hard 😫😫😫
I have a question, we hear about all these artists selling their masters catalogues recently (bob dylan, Motley Crue, RHCP) so by definition they owned their masters in order to sell them? How did these artists come to own their masters? Do they buy them off their label at some point in time? Did they not have « perpetuity » in their contracts? Thank you for your vidéos super interesting im just a bit confused on this point.
Best way to find your answers is by searching on Google. Artists and ownership of masters there alot of knowledgeable people on Reddit with threads that'll answer all your questions because people already asked the same thing
I have a song called "Never Be The Same" and the chorus goes, "You'll never be, you'll never be the same." ... I'd love to see it on a Tampax commercial.
Hi Damien! As I’m sure you’re aware, the government has banned ALL music in Northern Ireland!! Live music and recorded music is prohibited, putting thousands of musicians out of work! Can’t help but feel our government is just trying to get rid of the arts so that they don’t have to fund it anymore 🤦♀️ losing all hope right now!!
So hey, question: Why don't the artists just own the B-Version instead of the Master track - and just have the radio play that? And also, when someone "owns the Masters", what exactly is it that they own? Is it, like, the hard copy on which the music is recorded?
I wonder what would happen if you just don't pay back the debt and release whatever you want and ignore the contract completely. I mean what. They'll sue you? I guess? And then? I do wonder...
your efforts and knowledge are much appreciated, Kanye's wife is a lawyer? and he still signed the contract? I'm not going to apologize for this statement but if you sign any contract for any reason without full knowledge and awareness of what you're committing to receives no sympathy from me. I own my masters and continue to drop music with not a manager or record label. Creating great art gives you this power.
A lot of new artist are learning the evils of the music business . So many bands and artist got screwed by corrupt labels . UMI should had lost all the rights to their masters after the fire . With the resurgence of vinyl a lot of great albums with never be able to do a reissue from the analog master tapes and to vinyl junkies that means a lot . If you want to make yourself sad go check out the list of stuff that was lost , it might even make you sick .
The music space is getting cleaner and easier to understand because of guys like you. Thanks for sharing this knowledge!
Glad to help, that’s what I’m here for!
Actual Factuals
Own your music career, own the masters, either DIY marketing or just hire a third party publicist and create your own team.
If you don’t own your masters... Masters own you!
Haha so true 😊😊
true
Prince said that first. Give proper credit.
So pretty much if you sign a label you’ll have to maintain steady “hits “ until your contract is fulfilled
If you own your masters you’re pretty much your own boss and don’t have to answer to nobody
True 😂😂😂
This just feels to me like more of a testament to how labels are becoming outdated as we move into the digital age where self made is much more possible and realistic.
I love being 100% Indie, and have been for 7 years!
Love that!!
Hey I love your song while the world sleeps. Dope to see you here in the RUclips comments 🙌🏻
Do you use a distributor like cdbaby ect... ?
@@atherton7662 Awesome seeing people recognize my music like that, thanks :)
@@jeremymardis5590 I use Distrokid, I personally like the one yearly fee, upload all you want model. Keeps the creativity and music flowing :)
nice, gonna own all my own masters for the label my friend is setting up. no sneaky deals in case we fall out down the road lol.
Love the fact you are making so much money from your music! Well done
@@rODIUMuk it was pretty much a joke i haven't even released anything yet haha
Prince was always talking about how important it is to own ur masters since the 90s
Nowadays it is very important to build a business around your music. Getting the knowledge and preparation is crucial. Thanks Damian!!
Dude, the amount of high quality content you can deliver is mighty impressive! Respect man
Thanks dude!
As a business owner I enjoyed this. Many times per month I'm negotiating and looking to outsmart the other guy.
I appreciate you man. You take this somewhat complicated shit and spin it so that it's very easy to understand and you talk as if it's a conversation, not like a rehearsed lecture or something like that. I'm definitely a fan man
Imagine the amount of careers that would've been saved if this kind of content was available in the last cnetury
Man masters / royalty types / contracts etc. are so confusing haha thanks for shedding some light on this
Not a problem!! 😊😊
And befor the mastering there is the mixing.. Sometimes two separate engineers to do it.
To add even more.
Would love to see a video where you discuss any kind of record deal where artists don't get screwed or how to make sure you negotiate it so you come out better on the other side. Maybe that doesn't really exist. I haven't heard of any record deal where people don't get the piss taken out of them.
Loads of artists don’t get screwed. Loads of famous artists you know have never recouped
Sometimes the only way to win is to not play at all.
I wanna see a Tampax commercial that uses music from Royal Blood 🤔😆
So basically masters is how you market the music. 80% marketing (or higher) 20% music. Wonderful.
Prince, George Michael..They knew and we thought they were nobs..we were wrong
They killed their careers though
Masterclass in 12 Minutes now that called a good teacher.Thank U for the great content.
Protip: you don't have to sign a record contract to promote your music. But if you do there are stipulations. When you sign that record deal you are getting marketing and connections. There is value in that.
@CLEAN HEART indeed. So, higher a friggin' lawyer before you sign it!
My Label Deathstar Cult Ltd does not offer advances. But, we do have a 50-50 split for the artist on all royalties.
We also have a buy back option in the contract to protect the Artist.
They can give us 500$ plus any un recovered cost and the master belongs to them again.
No one has exercised the buy back option because we have so many things of value we offer them
But in the chance their track goes viral they can drop some cash and own their track.
It makes it harder for us as a company to make $ but its a good look in this quickly evolving scene.
And at the end of the day we are in this business out of love of Music. The owners are all Musicians as well and we sign the exact same contracts the artists do.
I wont give a contract to anyone that I myself wouldnt sign
Interesting - how are you finding the landscape right now?
@@DamianKeyes honestly the word in our circle is that Covid is the best thing to happen for us in a long time.
Its allowing us to posture ourselves and blast past tons of gatekeepers.
We have over 60 artists and everyone is collaborating and instructing each other in our Discord.
We have a family vibe and everyone is really good about supporting eachother.
We see this whole pandemic as an opportunity to build the core fan base and get ourselves prepped and ready to rip when this all eventually passes.
Everyone is itching to hit the road again still.
We are about to follow Subsidias lead and drop a big compilation of over 50 tracks along with a merch line at our 1 year anniversary February 23rd.
Prior to this there was such an over saturation in the scene that we didnt feel like we had a chance. But now we feel we do.
Fractal Reptillian would love to chat with you offline if possible.
@@FirebrandEntertainment send me an email to deathstarcult@gmail.com
Id love to have a chat
@@fractalreptillian6985 can I send you a mail too?
I’m so happy to see people becoming more aware of this. It’s the first step.
Important video, but you inadvertently still made it look better than it is, because you did not mention that all the recoupment comes out of your 15% of royalties, not out of the 100% of gross sales.
Awesome video, Damien! As an “oldie Indie” musician, I can understand how thrilling and seductive a record contract can be for a young artist. Yet everyone should be very skeptical of any contract, music, your house, your car, anything. I have a few suggestions for artists.One, take a class in music contracts (I realize Damo doesn’t want to , but he has already arrived!) Two, if you get a contract, don’t commit, listen and either study and take notes and then use that to get your own investors. Make sure the money is spent together , and you take a small salary and hire your own publicist, etc. (paying for a company to advertise on tv and social with your music is one way to go!) three, ask the label to put a good number on the cost, then tell them to keep the advance and have no recoupables in the contract. Four, why couldn’t you hire a recording studio and have session musicians record your songs on your own, parallel but totally separate to the record companies recording. This way you would have your own masters with the same flavor and timing as the ones for the record company. And last, spend some of your own money and take three to five years (same time a college degree would take) and utilize Damiens and other music promotion sources and invest in yourself to market and be totally independent. It is a brave new world where teens and young adults are making 20 minute videos on RUclips and killing it financially. While having no real skills or experience, but a hunger and curiosity, and are willing to put in the work. Believe in yourself and do it on your own first, the. Contracts will be easier to handle and deal with. Thanks for the videos, Damo!
No, see they won't agree to going to any old studio, you have to use their audio engineer that they are friends with that charges the price he names. You can't go to Billy Bobs studio. That stuff matters. *"We're going to make you famous Taylor Swift," -"hold on, can I keep my masters and record at a place in Georgia?" -"Get outta here"
I would avoid recording contracts at all costs.
I'd love to see a video discussing typical indie contracts vs typical major label contracts!
Super interesting! This makes total sense and I never even thought about it this way!
It’s an interesting world isn’t it!
Thomas from Daft Punk was the smart one. From the beginning, they licensed their material to Virgin. That meant that they kept complete control.
That’s very smart!
@@DamianKeyes He's a friend of a friend and as far as i know, his dad was in a big band in France back in the day. He (pops) advised him to license rather than sign away. Daft Punk are still regarded as the Gods of Electronic music.
I read that even when Daft Punk spent a lot of time in very expensive recording studios for Random Access Memories, they paid for it them selves.
It was a pretty good idea, considering how well that album turned out.
That's the way to do it.
I own all my music - I make all the music, write the lyrics, record, mix, master.... Still make no money from my music... One reason for this is without a doubt the fact that no one else makes money if my music sells... No one else has an interest in me having success because I am the only one who will be paid. So, there are definitely advantages to others making money from your work - because they will move the asses to do some essencial work... I have to do all the work, and it is so hard to have to do it all - especially the promotion part. As an artist, my focus should be the art - yet so many of us have to do the job that is specific to 10 people or so... Its a tough tough career to make it a success.
100 % .
The history of art is patronage - artists take money to make art.
@@rODIUMuk thats a good point....
Wine and Chill breaks down Kanye's contracts brilliantly. She's a former entertainment lawyer. Very entertaining and informative. Great video.
A lot of that was kind of old news, but apparently there's still people who don't know. Both Steve Albini wrote about it back in the '90s (The Problem With Music), and what he wrote back then is sadly still quite relevant today.
This isn’t cut and dry. I got more money selling the masters of demos to majors than most artists will make today. 100% of nothing is nothing
So do you just suggest an artist giving a label their masters in a record deal? I don't know much I assume you get a much higher advance if they own your master but in the long you could've probably made much more if you kept it for a lower advance
@@Ghosty716 watch the video
A music studio is like a marketing agency. You pay them to help advertise your stuff. That’s the best way to think about this.
Music studio doesn't do any marketing... A music studio is where you record and create a song with a microphone and beats that's it. Music studio has nothing to do with marketing.
I have watched a number of your videos and you provide some very good content. This one is largely no different but I do take exception with some of the language and terms used.
You state advances are loans that need to be paid back hence referring to them as a debt. Loans are obliged to be repaid, advances are not. Recouped against sales sure, but not repaid.
Stating that the advances and recording costs are a debt can suggest than an artist may need to sell off their house and possessions to repay the debt should they not sell enough records. This is not the case.
Many of the most successful artists do not recoup their recording deals and simply take up additional advances as they work through option periods on their recording contract.
Wow thank you very much for sharing this. You’ve made some things a lot clearer and also confirmed some thoughts about how the music industry works. Much appreciated. New subscriber by the way. Thanks 😊
I’m going back into writing and my craft. This is *imperative*
At last, we get to see beyond the curtains. Thank you Damian !
Thanks for that cool and somehow depressing vid! 3 questions: 1. Would you then recommend for any young / starting artist to not send finished music to a major label anymore at all? 2. And are there major label contracts that won't want to own your master still? 3. Would you recommend to invest the money by yourself for a pro engineer in advance of sending out "your best" demo (or does a landr master do the job and if the label likes it you would do that)?
Ive seen that in another video too and it kind of makes me feel like not wanting to make music anymore at all.. because for what.. having a chance of getting broke or competing against an algorithm on spotify..or alternativly not being heard at all? Anyways, thanks for the vid!
In France, there's Mc Solaar who lost his rights on his three first albums. You should checkout his story.
Contracts should be renegotiated in a world pandemic
Damn, I was so early this time I was actually first (no comments displayed).
To be fair, this is a pretty sensitive subject. As someone who does everything on my own, I have no worries about who the owner of the masters is, but it does help when I will inevitably need to record at another place different than my own (y'know, vocals and stuff). Apparently, I need to be careful to not get duped into something.
Thanks for the valuable information. Keep'em coming :D.
You are first! I think just having the information to make your own decisions is important 😊
Dude, you can go record in a pro studio and not be on a label. I work in pro studios with a professionnal producer, but I'm still owning all my masters. It basically comes down to who's paying the bills, not the actual place where you record!
@@S_Tadz Yeah, I finally figured that out :)). I'm still in the learning curve when it comes to the whole copyright shtick.
@@AndrewMilnerMusic when you're ready to release, pretty much every digital distributor out there will sort you out with all you need (ISRC, UPC, collecting money from sales and streams, etc). In the case you did/paid for everything and never signed a contract (digital or otherwise), you own everything. Most likely the whole 21,58$ of it, but hey! Best of luck to you!
You used to get paid to record your demos , now everyone pays
Kanye is a great example because he went from selling on tapes/vinyl (ghost production for JayZ) to CDs for his first 4 albums to now digital. So his contract really shows how outdated they can be.
Yep definitely!
Hey Damian, good video. Would an appropriate analogy be that this practice is akin to paying off a mortgage on your house, only for the bank to say "hey, we still own your house, keep paying us."?
As for the "360 deals" I've heard about similar things in other industries. I have a friend who's a software engineer and he told me that his contract with the company he used to work for had a clause that basically said "any software that you write while employed by us belongs to us, even if it's not related to what we do and even if it's written outside of work on your own time." Pretty crazy!
Good to know, thanks man, I wanna see more of your stuff
Thanks for the information. A few of the videos have made into my company chat room. And from they, directly into our company’s narrative which ultimately helps to strengthen our value add to the public. Thanks man. Much appreciation.
Only exception correct me if im wrong. When your doing library sync music strictly for tv and film and they pay some advance, with keeping your writers, usually they own masters for compete solicitation and rights to full use of song worldwide.
Owning masters is great however if you have specified music not releasd but for show or big network cues , this would be the case. However self published work for sure own 100%
Excellent presentation sir.
Also I always drool over that Orange head in the background 😉
Ye absolutely does have the best discography in hip hop history. BY FAR.
In fact, he probably has the best and most untouchable discography in music, period. Across all genres. The only one who I think could be beyond him in this is MJ. And that’s solely because of songs that became cultural moments like “Billie Jean,” “Man in the Mirror”, “Thriller”, “Smooth Criminal “, “Remember the Time”-which all outlived their own time and contemporaries.
Outside of that, I’d be interested in someone (who actually knows Kanye’s discography & journey in depth) offering an objection to this...
Just like MJ, the media has made a scapegoat and buffeting clown out of him but his discography is a modern monument that will likely go under-appreciated until another generation.
Lol
It's dogshit
Guitarists Suck Very eloquent and comprehensive. You’ve convinced me.
Kanye just samples most of the time. Comparing him to MJ is an absolute joke 😂😂😂
@@heckinbasedandinkpilledoct7459 absolutely masterful explanation.
Very good information. Thanks for handling us light in these dark times.
Labels are about to be more and more irrelevant in the coming years as the ability to promote yourself via social media is becoming increasingly more and more prevalent
Kanye making moves like this, and demonstrating it publicly, will make others braver in the future.
Very interesting. I actually didn’t know like any of this. Thanks so much, Damian.
Great tips! A number of artists like Sir Paul McCartney, the Bee Gees (Sir Barry Gibb and the estates of his brothers Robin and Maurice), and the late Ray Charles have owned their masters, and I would love to see Kanye and other artists do the same for their masters.
Double ententre here
Great video! When you are a new artist, you definitely need a bigger distribution/promo and that's why so many artists give up masters to trade off. What if you duplicate a master, let's say, with different mixing technics (or just cut the sub 1hz), do they also own that master? Or now you have your own version of master? Would love to get some insights!
Gotta love the music "it's just business" industry! Good stuff Damo!! 🐒
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Brilliant info. I didn't know some of that info but now I do. Cheers Damo.
If major labels don't change in the end it's best to stay independent. If you do have a hit then people will come to you like festivals, tv appearances and so on.
I think the main problem is the share percentage of profit between the artist and the label.if the share is 60-40. 60 for artist and 40for the label . I thinks thats fair for both of them because they need each other.
One of your best videos imo. Very informative.
Thank you very much for this!
Not a problem 👊😊
This content has helped me alot, thank you.
thanks for that info guy.
Great info my Brighton G
Great information and insights of Music industry... Great work sir 👍
always doing amazing videos
Thanks for this great information you make me see this thing more clearly
This was awesome!
Thanks man for this information!!
Put the credit where it belongs. Prince stood up to Warner Brothers to get his Masters into his ownership. Also, unlike others Artists, Prince did not incur costs to WB. He wrote, arranged and produced all his music. He played all instruments and sang harmony as well as vocals. He only needed a studio hired and an engineer to help him, not to engineer though. Then he built his own studio complex and did everything at Paisley Park. WB did not have many costs with Prince but didn’t credit Prince for his extra involvement. When Prince changed his name to a symbol to negate his contracts signed as Prince, everyone thought he was mad. The action of changing his name to a symbol was bringing to the public, attention as to what was happening to musicians and ownership of their intellectual property. Prince was ahead of anyone in trying to bring to the public how the music industry was involved in the theft of intellectual material long before that was a known term. WB apparently owed him $700,000,000 for overcharging but they rest easy now following his death?
No..... you do need to know.. putting your faith in a lawyer is just like putting your faith in a label.. knowing what a lawyer is looking for on a basic level means you can notice if the lawyer is accustom to the way the label contracts work and think it’s fine.... it’s lawyers that have created and facilitated these contracts for years so you need to be watching them too:. even when it is your lawyer and not (obviously) the label lawyer
That is a high level of paranoia. Have you ever tried to read a major label contact? I suggest you go try and read Kanye’s 100 pages he posted and see what sections you understand. You need to find a lawyer you trust because if you try and do this yourself you will be another broke musician paying the labels for your art
Great informaton, thanks for that.
Great video. This is also described in the documentary «Artifact» about 30 Seconds To Mars’ third album. Or it was supposed to be..
Fredrik Heesbråten ah I’ll have to check that out, if love to see it especially as he has a lot of leverage with his acting career. Thanks Fredrik
Thank you for sharing how the business works
Solid info, thanks for creating great content!
Been waiting for this video
The more you know about the music industry the more it demotivates actually
It is the most competitive industry asides from sport! It’s an amazing industry, just very competitive, but very rewarding too!
@@DamianKeyes well said. Big thank you for providing this kind of information! Much love from The Netherlands
Hah! I came in at 1000 views! Amazing timing. Great information again, thank you very much! :)
I think the breakages for vinyl will be staying in the contracts if artists release on vinyl. 10% isn't so much for store promos, i'm sure some stores still do this.
“back in the day when we used to do vinyl” LOL
What are the upsides of being signed to a major label? I am sure there are benefits as well.
Love your videos, thank you for this
I've got to be honest, I think it's fair.
From an industry standpoint, you want the labels to be making loads of money from their top artists because then they will take risks, risk means musical diversity, smaller artists getting big deals, labels signing more artists. It's generally good for the whole industry.
From an artist perspective, a label can take you from essentially nothing to something, all of my favourite modern rock bands had their first release backed by either sony or warner brothers. Pretty much all of them, a couple have other smaller labels but are not as big as a result. A record label can make something like royal blood, take them from night club gigs in 2013 to a number 1 album, playing reading in 2015 and supporting the foo fighters, a label can make nothing but thieves, from doing a cover of the show must go on for RUclips to releasing their first ep, first album and then supporting muse. I saw both of these bands in the o2 arena last year sold out, and supporting them were the amazons (universal) and yonaka (warner brothers), two up and coming rock bands on major label deals, I personally as an artist very often look at who releases my favourite up and coming band's records, if they are slightly bigger, it is one of the big three and has been since the start, if they're a bit smaller, they're still signed to one of the big 3, I personally can't see another way to grow as a rock band realistically without one of the big 3 in your corner, and by in your corner I mean trying to make money out of you, because if you play your cards right, them trying to take money will elevate your personal brand.
Many people say that you don't need a label nowadays, but I'm yet to see a rock band truly prove this, a few artists from other genres have, but in terms of rock, it hasn't been proven as far as I'm aware.
So true, at the same time, isn't it nearly impossible to reach such sales, visibility and opportunities without the 'help' of the majors? That does not mean they will own your masters though
It's lucky to be a producer who learns how to master. And additionally to not be signed to a major label.
You always have the finished piece as your own. It's easier to safe yourself when sh** breaks out.
You earn more money for life In Royalties and zinc deals too
For sure 😊😊
Having an engineer master your work, and signing a 'master' to a label is a different thing mate. You can mix/master your own track, but the label still owns the master if you sign it to them. The same goes for if you get someone to master your work, they don't automatically own a piece of it.
i think the 'msters' issue came to light with all that episode of Taylor Swift and the re-recordings she is still working on. Since then I've been getting informed about the topic and it has been really interesting!
OKay, Mr Damien, can you please explain to me how on Earth is it possible for a rap recording to cost 3 million to record it in a studio? I mean, it's not like Ron Nevison is going to produce it, and it's not like Kanye would have to record rhythm guitar one string at a time ( Mutt Lange, Hysteria, remember)... so, what's the catch?
He has a lot of live musicians and some of those are signed and ant huge fees
He didn't say that. 3 mil is the advance. That's the label saying, "Here's your money to live off until we recoup and you start earning a royalty share from this again". But, as Damien said, that 3 mil is separate from the cost of recording and promotion (which is massive for a big album), the cost of sleeve designs, all the promos, etc which are going on your bill too.
Joe Chapman true. And embarrassingly you probably only get like £100,000 out of that to keep!!! And as you know , most artists get more than that off of Spotify
I was thinking the same thing
🧐The other issue is that before you could recoup your cost by selling 1 million PHYSICAL copies💰. Now because of Spotify labels own a percentage of Spotify knowing that they have also reduced how much artists receive per DIGITAL play. This now makes it almost impossible for artists like Kanye, Rihanna etc to recoup from recording costs🥺. The contracts are completely outdated because labels know artists can’t make the money back! Even worse when you’re in a boy band like Brockhampton, Britney Spears (who doesn’t write her biggest hits) etc. Those splits must be hard 😫😫😫
Very useful thank-you so much 🙏
I have a question, we hear about all these artists selling their masters catalogues recently (bob dylan, Motley Crue, RHCP) so by definition they owned their masters in order to sell them? How did these artists come to own their masters? Do they buy them off their label at some point in time? Did they not have « perpetuity » in their contracts? Thank you for your vidéos super interesting im just a bit confused on this point.
Best way to find your answers is by searching on Google. Artists and ownership of masters there alot of knowledgeable people on Reddit with threads that'll answer all your questions because people already asked the same thing
Yes I stay small time and not get in debt
what do you think about distributors like tunecore, distrokid?
I'm betting this is the video you did when you changed your shirt. Literally just going of the fact its your next upload.
Haha it actually isn’t! This one was shot this morning! The shirt change was Monday and Tuesdays video ;)
I have a song called "Never Be The Same" and the chorus goes, "You'll never be, you'll never be the same." ...
I'd love to see it on a Tampax commercial.
Thanks for letting me know about this. How do I get the masters rights for something that I am about to copyright?
Hi Damien! As I’m sure you’re aware, the government has banned ALL music in Northern Ireland!! Live music and recorded music is prohibited, putting thousands of musicians out of work! Can’t help but feel our government is just trying to get rid of the arts so that they don’t have to fund it anymore 🤦♀️ losing all hope right now!!
Im a very straight to the chase kinda guy. These videos should have timestamps!
Feel free to ad them in the comments
I'd honestly be ok with my music on a Tampax ad lol
So hey, question: Why don't the artists just own the B-Version instead of the Master track - and just have the radio play that? And also, when someone "owns the Masters", what exactly is it that they own? Is it, like, the hard copy on which the music is recorded?
I wonder what would happen if you just don't pay back the debt and release whatever you want and ignore the contract completely.
I mean what. They'll sue you? I guess? And then? I do wonder...
So similar to university business
Good stuff.
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your efforts and knowledge are much appreciated, Kanye's wife is a lawyer? and he still signed the contract? I'm not going to apologize for this statement but if you sign any contract for any reason without full knowledge and awareness of what you're committing to receives no sympathy from me. I own my masters and continue to drop music with not a manager or record label. Creating great art gives you this power.
A lot of new artist are learning the evils of the music business . So many bands and artist got screwed by corrupt labels . UMI should had lost all the rights to their masters after the fire . With the resurgence of vinyl a lot of great albums with never be able to do a reissue from the analog master tapes and to vinyl junkies that means a lot . If you want to make yourself sad go check out the list of stuff that was lost , it might even make you sick .