Before and after signing that record label deal

Welcome back!

Concerning my last post titled, Record Label Palaver, a blog post about how recording artists get into trouble with their record labels, this is my advice.

Legal:

The first action that an artiste or anybody going into a contract with another person or organization should take is to get a lawyer or an entertainment business manager or an entertainment accountant. Yes, the two latter professionals can also help you analyze your contracts.

Note that an entertainment/music business manager is different from a music manager. The only overriding duty they perform is business development. I will differentiate their duties in a subsequent post.

You will be doing yourself a favour if you get one of the above professionals ahead of time. It will save you a lot of headaches in the future, especially when the record label palaver starts. This period usually looks like scenes from a movie, when the artiste pitches a tent against the label and vice versa.

Accounting:

After you have accepted the record label’s offer or made a counteroffer and the label has agreed to your terms, the next thing is to keep proper accounting records of your own.

Every amount that the label pays you in cash should be documented. Your expenses should also be documented. Definitely, you should have a bank account.

I recommend that as an artist, you have three accounts; one current, and the other two, savings.

Why and how?

The first savings account will be the account that your record label pays your earnings and royalties. (The latter will only be paid if you have right to the song you recorded on the label’s bill).

The second savings account will be the account that you use for online transactions.

The current account will be your salary account.

Why a savings account? It is cheaper to own a savings account. The bank pays you interest on your account instead of you paying charges as in the case of the current account.

Why a separate account for online transactions? It is safer to put only the amount you need for specific transactions in that account instead of exposing all your hard-earned money to online fraud.

Why a salary account for an artiste? You should be aware that your songs will not always be on the charts. You will not always be in the limelight forever. You need to spend wisely and save for the rainy days. You need to invest.

Your salary should be able to cover your basic monthly needs such as food, clothing, shelter (rent), miscellaneous expenses, contingent expenses and money for the upkeep of your dependents(e.g. children and parents).

So you could pay yourself, say 30% of what you earn monthly, depending on what you earn, into your current account from your savings account.

It is from this current account that you can issue cheques to whoever you want to pay. Your manager will be paid at source depending on your agreement.

Your business manager (me, if you are interested), can help you with your bookkeeping, audit and accounting.

So when a palaver arises, if any, even after you have sought the help of these professionals and your record label is still against you and you are being asked to pay some amount of money, you should be able to compare notes based on your record keeping.

The above advice is useless if you deliberately walk out of your contract. That means that you have breached the contract and you should suffer the consequences.

As an upcoming record label owner, I am not shooting myself in the leg by giving you all this information because I have always believed in being objective and having integrity. I will not call yellow, or black for my future label mates. So help me God.

In my next post, I will be talking about contracts; offer and acceptance, ‘what is’ and ‘what is not’ an offer and acceptance.

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I will be back shortly.

Musically Yours,

DJ Irawo