I got contacted by a upcoming label and I need Your advice.

Just make your move, no one ever made it by not taking risks.
 
Ok guys, thanks for all the input from You!

Here are the few things I know already:

1. They want to sell beats $35-50 for a lease and $130 for a exclusive with 50/50 split

2. They claim I can still sell some of my stuff on the side as individual - but of course not those beats they'll chose to sell as a company.

3. They want to sign 2-months trial contract that will require around 15-20 beats.

What y'all think? Should I go with it? I still need to know how they reckon up the money and how do I know for how much they sold a beat.
 
Ayo K, if you're seriously interested in any venture concerning a verbal/written contractual signings or obligation made to or in partnership to any specific individual or business entity. Always make sure to take into account both your and their financial responsibility and Always try to have a lawyer present. As far as music goes remember to have all songs legally owned through copyright and carefully review the other side's (in this case the label's) guidelines on things like whether they can take part in what you do on personal time and side ventures i.e. endorsements or deals where another (different companies or people) entity wants to use your music, voice, image etc. for their own gain. That is, can they by contract, in any way take your money from personal investments. If that's not mentioned don't take it as meaning they cannot, instead make sure it can't be done with a contractual lock against such action.
 
That e-mail in the OP sounded extremely fishy and amateurish, as someone said. If you read between the lines you'll see that they are hardly established. I'd put a bet on the founders being extremely young and inexperienced too, 16-21.

I see you've asked them about the types of numbers they'll be selling your product at, however in these situations I'd be more inclined to ask them about their business history, their intentions, and not sales. I mean their promotional and marketing ideas and plans... If all they can come up with is some advertising on You Tube, then what's really in it for you? If you can come up with better, more original, and more efficient (in regards to profit, time and cost) promotional ideas, why the Hell would they be of any use to you?

My advice in brief:
- Tell them you're not interested
- Build yourself a team
- Put your plan in to writing
- Put that plan in to motion

The only way you'll learn however is through your sucess and failure, so perhaps this little venture could be a vital experience to you.

It's completely in your hands. If you want more advice, you can either PM me, or get in touch with me over twitter (www.twitter.com/ExclusivoMusic), I'm happy to give you advice.

-Exclusivo.


On another note, Desire... What's your problem? From what I've seen you're extremely demotivating, and judging by your replies to advice threads, you're extremely unhelpful, and also seem envious, or hope your competition fail. Is it all part of dirty play you hope increases YOUR sales or something?
 
Take the deal, worst thing that can happen is that it blows, and then you're back at where you are now, which doesn't seem as a bad thing to me.
 
kmano said:
First off I did this thread here cause I think here I can get some decent feedback.

So, I got an email from what I think is a online music label that just starts making moves. They said they liked my music and asked about joining them. After I started to ask them questions, here is what they replied:

View attachment 39131

What do You think I should do? How does it looks for You? Serious? Below the message there was a contact to the guy and also his twitter, which looked serious - he has like a 500 followers or sth, so it's kinda real person. I am fairly new to the game cause I've been producing for 2 years now, so it's somehow soon for me to join a group I think. The fact that I never had a contact with business side of music is important here as well. From nature I am kinda suspicious type of a guy so it's always hard for me to believe that someone wants to do FAIR and legals business.

Also, if I would join them, what about my SOLO activities? Would I still be able to sell beats on my own? Or make my own projects? Sorry for all those rookie questions, but I thought some experienced guys here can give me some true advice. It's not like it's a big label, but still for me it's flattering that someone wants to work with me. Tell me what You think!
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Well, he certainly can't prevent theft by tagging the beats. It's pointless to even try to do that or to try to claim that it's effective. If somebody wants to steal it, they'll steal it and the beat police aren't going after them.

After the 10% commission is paid, does that effectively turn it into a 60/40 producer/label?

I'd also ask him which blogs he has a "strong" relationship with. Ask a lot of questions in general so that you can get a feel for if the thing is legit or if the whole thing is a house of cards.

Good luck!

---------- Post added at 11:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:57 AM ----------
Zonic said:
Why are you guys giving him this ridiculous "go ahead and sign" advice?

First off, let's break this email down and decipher the "code" talk...

- "Some are full time with us trying to get this off the ground" (you prb. won't get paid)
- "We would like to sell as much as possible as to attain the capital required to..." (they don't have a lot of money, if any)

This is a new venture, they do NOT have enough money to survive and you prb. won't be offered much, IF ANY, in the beginning. You will be hit with the "promo" talk which goes something like this "we have x and x amount of views, x and x amount of connections, x and x things line up... if you sign with us, those resources will also be available to you as well"

Hold up... they already started talking like that, it's in the 3rd and 4th paragraphs.

50/50 split for what? What are they bringing to the table that entitles them to 50% of the money? 100 views on youtube? Come on, they need more concrete numbers than that.

What you need to do is ask the following questions:

- What are your 1 year, 5 year, 10 year plans?
- What's in it for me?
- Will you build and put money into me, as a producer, in your company? If so, how?
- Who owns what and at what percentage? Do i own my music, do you own it? Is it negotiable? etc
- I'm I signed exclusively to your company or can i still sell music on the side?

These are just some basic questions of the top of the head but you get the point.

You need to be able to drill down ANYONE who approaches you with these types of emails. You will come across a lot of bullshitters in this world. The only way to weed through em is by asking as many questions as possible.

Here's what i've learned so far... those who are serious about their business will not only answer any questions you have but will approach you FIRST with a "here's what's in it for you" plan. People seem to forget that in order to get someone to be part of their "team" they first need to feed into the other persons wants and needs... right now it's looking like they are trying to get as many people as possible for free or cheap.

Don't be afraid to talk numbers, EVER.

Talking numbers, money, percentages cuts through a lot of bull and saves a lot of time.
Click to expand...

Zonic is right, especially:

What are they bringing to the table that entitles them to 50% of the money?
Click to expand...

Have a lawyer look over any contract you're presented with so that you can avoid regretting that you signed on the dotted line.
 
HighasF said:
Take the deal, worst thing that can happen is that it blows, and then you're back at where you are now, which doesn't seem as a bad thing to me.
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worst thing that can happen is they make the majority of $ for the next 3 years of all beats you make even after you leave them
 
Out of interest OP, do you know the length of the contract? Can it be terminated at any time, or is there a length defined?
 
All you need to do is really look at what they are getting and what you are getting from a possible deal and this way you can see if something does feel right. Try to not worry about sales & money that could be made but more so as a possible kick start to further you career & passion !!
 
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