So let’s talk about the types of deals that you can actually get. What kind of record deals are out there in the world? So you have a standard master recording deal. Now that is mostly what a major label will provide. It is changing, but there has to be leverage when you’re negotiating your contract. So a standard master recording deal is going to be the type of deal where the record label comes in.
They invest money in, you invest money in resources, and for that, they’re going to own a certain percentage of the master recording in perpetuity. Now you’ll see these words in a lot of record label contracts in perpetuity across the universe. that means forever, no matter where you are in whatever galaxy, those percentages vary. this is what some independent labels will want to or subsidiaries at majors.
it could be anywhere from a 50 50 split on your master to an 80 20 split in favor of the label, meaning that the label would get 80% and then the artist would get 20. Then you have licensing deals, which is what we did at the label that I worked at. So what a licensing deal is, is that you and the label split the royalties on the master recordings and the brand.
And there’s other things that happen when you’re at LEC record label that generate income that they will participate in. these are things that we call your ancillary incomes. So excuse me, things like touring, merchandising, use of image sync. so in a licensing deal, you split the revenue in whatever it is.
Sometimes it’s 50 50, same thing, anything from like a 50 50 up to an 80 20, but for a specific period of time. And then once that time period has ended, your masters revert back to you noting the differences is that a standard label deal is that your masters are never going to revert back to you. You will still only the label will own the master and give you 20 to 50% of whatever that is in a licensing deal.
Your masters then revert back to you and you own them a hundred percent. So that meaning that the label participates at a certain percentage for a specific length of time. They have licensed the master from you, you own it. So then we have distribution deals. So in a distribution deal, you will distribute your music.
Some distributors offer funding, some don’t, some do to some artists and some don’t to others, mostly depending on research and what it looks like and what the ROI or the return on investment is going to be for the distribution. Now a distribution company is normally going to take a smaller percentage, and if they’ve invested money normally until recoup, so that looks more like a licensing deal. But you always own your masters where in a licensing deal for a period of time, you have a partner in that, in a distribution deal, you’re going to continue to own your master’s throughout.
I wanna talk about if you’re ready for a deal and then how we get a record deal. It’s like a very kind of silly thing to talk about, but ’cause there is no right answer and I hate that I have to be like kind of vague in this space, right?
But the truth is, is that I don’t think anybody really ever knows when they’re ready for a record deal. I think the record labels come to you and they let you know, but there are some things that we can talk about to get ourself there. Ready. So let’s talk about a and r and what an a and r person is looking for. Now, me having been an a and r person, I look for a lot of things. I look for amazing songs.
I look for somebody who has that thing. Some people call it the it factor. Some people call it the X factor. it’s just something special that lets you know that that artist and that music is extremely special. Now, you can have great music, but what is going to make a label or a distributor or anybody want to invest money in you?
How do you show that your music is working and that it is a viable business for somebody to invest into and then create a return on investment? And that all comes from data. So a humongous part of a and r is research. there’s a lot of things that we look at. One is streaming numbers. another is editorial, well, well editorial playlisting.
So that would be playlists that are curated specifically by the partners. So at Spotify you have new music Friday, chill pop, new boots and country. at Apple you have things like new music daily, hitting reset, super bloom. there’s a ton at Amazon as well. So are, have the partners noticed you enough in order to validate the music in a way to show and help and then support you by putting you in playlist, helping you monetize your music.
That’s another thing we look at. And please note that all of these things are all different factors that have to come together in the pot and create the perfect storm. next thing we look at is social media. Where your social media numbers, are your fans engaged with you?
how’s your, you know, how is your engagement per post? is the music translating? Next thing we look at is things like charts. What’s in the Apple top 200? What’s on the Spotify viral 50? What music and which artists are permeating the market independently?
Because when you’re able to permeate the market independently, that shows us that the music is connecting and you wanna invest in a business that’s connecting. lastly, you know, we look at things like press. You know, are you getting coverage? Are people engaged? Are you interesting enough to wanna talk about and wanna be involved with? and you take all of those things and then you hope that there’s really, really great music coming.
And then you base how much money you will in the label will invest in you based on the data and what it is pro, what your music is projected to do data wise.
