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djretro1990 · 2 years

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"Recording Artist | Record Deals"

PCG, The Grind

The possibility to be rich and famous is the American dream that everyone chases. Unfortunately, recording artist find that the American dream can quickly turn into a nightmare.

Recording artist deals generally grant the artist 10% to 25% of the record sales (Day, 1). Can you imagine, after spending many hours in the recording studio, photo opportunities, touring, personal appearances, and concerts you receive a bill? These charges are billed towards promotion, travel, hotel cost, bookings, clothing, studio time, distribution, housing, food, and other items to be paid from what they receive in royalties. Most recording artists have the fame, but do not understand the business side of the industry. Some would say that the artist must know what they are getting into, but it is the primary goal for the recording label to stay profitable in the end. To protect their investment, recording companies may have the artist sign over publishing, creative control, and name/likeness because all risk has been taken by the company alone. Although we think music recordings (referred to as masters) should be co-owned by recording companies and artists, we have must consider that the artist has no upfront investment. Recording companies take the hit if they are not making the record sales needed to reimburse the budget spent on their album. In the industry, artists do not receive proper royalties for their work, and deals are structured so that the label owns the masters and this can place recording artists in a no-win situation later down the line if they become a star and consistently sell records.

Many new artists signed to a recording label will have a less than 5% chance of becoming successful in the music industry, admittedly the risk can be great for the recording company (Day, 1). With this slim margin of success, the recording industry will structure a recording contract that gives them ownership of your music and masters. The recording industry has created an infrastructure that will record, distribute, market, and return a profit to the recording company. It's no wonder why they would protect their company and have the artist relinquish rights to the music they are investing in. The record companies are pretty much self-sustaining and they have an interwoven system to get new artists' music to market very quickly. Today's musician has a better situation than those back in the day because they do not need to depend on the record industry as much as they needed to for studio time and production equipment. The numbers today show "75% of music sales come from streaming, with only 10% coming from physical sales"(McDonald, 2). With independent artists having access to home studios, affordable equipment and software, they can distribute their music through platforms like Soundcloud, CD Baby, and Pandora. Recording companies are still signing artists using the "old system" based on CD sales, instead of the new download model for songs. In other words, "the artist used to get paid 8-15% of CD sales royalties", in contrast to record companies have a lower cost for distribution for uploaded digital content at this time and in this digital medium (McDonald, 2). The record companies must be willing to adjust the contracts for an artist to receive more money from music sales because these companies' budgets are far lower than the days before.

Increasingly popular deals that have become a staple for recording companies these days are the "360 deals". These are the new deals that take a piece of merchandising, personal appearances, concerts, download revenue, cd sales, publishing, and endorsements to name a few (McDonald, 2). These are deals that the recording companies put together to stay profitable to fill the gap from losing CD sales revenue. It is not uncommon for an artist to be promised certain percentages of recording sales, then years later they are advised that they do not have rights to publishing, music, music sales, or even royalties. Popular musical artists such as Kalise, had been allegedly lied to about their music royalty percentages and sales over the years. She advised she was lied to and that the album sales from the Neptunes were to be split 33/33/33 (McDonald H., 2). She was not paid at all for recording sales. Independent labels have found success by gathering a roster of good talent and then later negotiating a record deal with the major labels. This will give them more leverage in negotiation and distribution. "These labels have been responsible for such talent as Drake and Radiohead"(McDonald, 2). The new age record companies are AWAL, Soundrop, RouteNote, and several others. Stimulating the creativity of the artist and talent, they negotiate a small fee for distribution and the artist walks away with nearly 100% of the revenue. These are just a few digital platforms that store and download the music directly to the user (Medi.com, 4).

Most recording artist will forgo their legal rights, or legal counsel because they are referred to as "friends or family" during negotiations (Cochrane, 3). Recording labels have also masked more income streams in recording deals, with elusive ways to add themselves as band members, writers, plus assigning recording artists to subsidiary recording companies and talent management labels (Cochran, 3). These are the endless stories we hear over the years about artists who go broke or do not retain any rights to the very music they create. Others have said that they should know better and that attorneys should have looked over the paperwork before they signed. Contrary to what we think they should do, it is common for the artist to jump in and sign based on what promises have been made to the artist up to signing the deal. Let us not forget that these recording contracts are very confusing, have a lot of legal jargon and one word in the contract can make a big difference in interpretation to all parties. To make matters even worse than that, they trust wholeheartedly trust what the label tells them and later find that it was a false tale.

Conclusion

With all that said, the recording companies are still relying on the old contract structure in the new era of recording. Second, the recording artist needs to get a bigger piece of the royalty amount from what the recording companies are making, and finally, the artist is willing to sign their life away for the chance to become famous. It is such a sticky situation where the recording companies have the artist sign as much of their publishing and creativity away to the recording company, to recoup the money they place into an artist. Although that money is not guaranteed to come back, the risk is on the company and that's how they are structured to replenish the profit margin.

Citation:

Day B. (2011, P. 21), In Defense of Copyright: Record Labels, Creativity, and the Future of Music. Seton Hall Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law.

McDonald H., (2020), Website, https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-360-deals-in-the-music-industry-work-2460343

Cochrane N., (2019) Website; https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8550339/bad-record-label-deals-mase-kelis-90s

Media.com, @HipHopo Unwrapped, (2019) Website; https://medium.com/@HipHopUnrapped/why-we-need-to-leave-record-labels-behind-in-2019-bfa1db45036a

Photo Credit: Samuel Regan Asonte

#oldschool #indiemusic #music #pcgllcmedia #thegrind #blog #youtube #twitter #interview #podcast #artist

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djretro1990 · 2 years

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Singer | Songwriter Tony Mohogany

PCG, The Grind

First I would like to thank your for taking time out of your day to answer a couple of questions and to hang out Tony. We appreciate your music and we look forward to knowing more about you.

Let's get started,

JP: Where are you from?

TM: New Orleans, La

JP: What is your career field and how did you get started?

TM: My career field is Recording Engineering, I started being a songwriter for a couple artist back in New Orleans. After talking with good friend and Super producer Blaq n’ Mild, I was motivated to go to school and get certified in becoming a recording engineer.

JP: Who are your role models, and what knowledge have you gained from them?

TM: My Grandfather and my mother. Know who you are and where you come from, and with focus, dedication, you can be the best at anything.

JP: What have you learned from your personal experiences that have helped you through, the rough times?

TM: Pray, hold your head up, and never give up.

JP: What advice would you give anyone wanting to pursue the same career?

TM: If you truly love and have a desire to do something don’t give up. No matter how the situation may appear, because if you’re like me you won’t be able to rest anyway if you don’t accomplish your goal.

JP: What are your hobbies?

TM: Right now its Boxing, but I do enjoy playing any other kind of sports.

JP: What is your greatest achieve thus far in life, that you consider game changing?

TM: Being a Father and a Husband.

JP: What is the next project we can look out for?

TM: I’m not at liberty to say right now, but Just keep following me and the music. I guarantee you’ll enjoy the journey and what it brings.

JP: What was your very first project you worked on and how was the experience?

TM: The self titled Tony Mohogany-What’s Hot in the Streets. It was a huge a learning curve for me. I learned a lot of detailed oriented experiences that go into not only creating music but also in business.

JP: Who are the people you would like to thank, that have helped you along the way?

TM: My mother, she let me sore when I wasn’t sure what that really was and guaranteed me that if I stuck with whatever I wanted to do that was legally competent she would be right there.

Thanks again Tony for stopping bye and we ask all of those reading this interview to go and download the music that Tony has put out. We would love to have you back on The Grind!

Contact information:

Email: [email protected]

Website: untd.io/[email protected]

Instagram: @tonymohogany

Twitter: @TonyMahogany504

#pcgllcmedia #podcast #music #interview #indiemusic #djmix #twitter #blog #thegrind #oldschool

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djretro1990 · 2 years

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Taurea Vision Avant | Powerful Strategic Partner

PCG, The Grind

Taurea Vision Avant is from Hampton, VA, as she has been referred to as "The Queen of Book Profiting"! This HBCU graduate who has been in business for more than 20 years has discovered one important thing early on, she suffered from "IDD Syndrome" which she has defined as Inspired Deficit Disorder. When you think of someone who has the passion to inspire, you have to think of Taurea. Taurea is more than a visionary, exceptional motivational speaker, author, entrepreneur, and network professional you want to have as a strategic partner. Taurea has authored more than 15 books to her credit and includes such titles as A Vision to Freedom: Steps to truly living the life of your dreams and Speaking for Profits: How to Make 6 Figures. Taurea explains more about her success:

JP:

Where are you from?

Taurea:

Hampton, VA

JP:

What is your career field early on, how did you get started?

Taurea:

I went to school for computer science but only worked in corporate for a year. I have always been an entrepreneur at heart.

JP:

Who are your role models, and what knowledge have you gained from them?

Taurea:

My father was my first ever role model. He is why I am such a techie today. I've learned about hard work and dedication from him. He passed away when I was 26. I have had so many coaches through my years, but they all have helped me today be where I am. My current coaches include Trevor Otts, Dr. Cheryl Woord, Marque Russell.

JP:

What have you learned from your personal experiences that have helped you during the rough times?

Taurea:

That you can always bounce back, and it always worked out in the end.

JP:

What advice would you give anyone wanting to pursue the same career?

Taurea:

Stay focused. Do not allow yourself to be distracted from others doing something similar. Do not try to be everything to everyone. Focus on one NICHE in your NICHE!

JP:

What are your hobbies?

Taurea:

I love watching movies. I love gadgets, and I love going to get massages (lol).

JP:

What is your greatest achievement thus far, that you consider game-changing?

Taurea:

Helping more than 5000+ people to become authors.

JP:

What was the very first project you worked on, how was the experience?

Taurea:

Uh, that is a long time ago (lol). I did my first workshop for book writing in 2014, it was amazing to me. I had 61 people registered, I was tired of doing what I had been doing, so I decided to do the workshop. Not really knowing what I was doing I still pushed forward, and today I am now responsible for more than 5000+ authors.

JP:

Who are the people you would like to mention that have helped you along the way?

Taurea:

I want to thank Beverly Melissa Doman Avant (Mom), Andra Bernard Avant (Father), and Veronica Terry (second mom). Lastly, my authorpreneurs and friends for believing in me.

This founder of the Urban CEO network has successfully authored over 15 books. Not only has Taurea been featured on CBS, Fox, and ABC networks, she has empowered more than 5,000 individuals to find their voice in the publishing world.

"It wasn't necessarily the grind that I loved, but I did love impacting people's lives"

-Taurea Vision Avant

A valuable piece of her successful formula that makes her a force to be reckoned with, is the relentless schedule of four to six workshops that she provides a month as she travels across the country. I am a fan of her desire to make others successful and have attended her webinars that introduce you to the opportunity that she provides. Her no-nonsense, down-to-earth personality draws you in instantly, but do not be fooled thinking you will not have to bring the desire and passion with you. Taurea makes it known that if you want forward movement, fulfilling your dream and seeing your creation come to pass must put the work in.

Citation:

What does being Urban Mean Me | Taurea Vision Avant | TEDxMariettaSquare

Website: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN8bZPapCe4

Show Your Success: Interview with Taurea Vision Avant (AG West Houston)

Website: gs.alphagraphics.com

#taureavisionavant #interview #blog #thegrind #pcgllcmedia #podcast #magazine #fashion #styleinspiration #authors

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