Hai

Topic of "recording industry is shit" is maybe bit overplayed, but I've found most informative thing on the issue I've ever seen. Arthur von Nagel of BM/folk/whatever band Cormorant wrote long, comprehensive (and amusing) article describing complete record deal with a "small but well-respected label that has put out some amazing music" in details:

http://www.metalsucks.net/2009/10/01/ti ... -contract/

In short: money paid twice a year (in optimistic variant), earning 15% from each CD BUT 0% from first 500 sold copies, low/none advance fees etc. Turns out band needs to sell ~10000 copies to just get money used for producing record back. Only serious money's gigging and merchandise (unless you're silly enough to give complete rights for merch to the label). Sure it's not news for many people - but seeing how the real contract is made is quite a sight.

Don't be put off by the massive length of the article - it's very interesting. And depressing, yeah. What's the point of the contract, again? Only one I could think now is it can be helpful in organizing shows. And if you're Madonna then yeah, you probably earn some money from it

Thanks for the link! Even though I have no clue who that guy is, that was very interesting and relevant, and I'm going to forward it to my band's other members ASAP.

It's reading things like this that makes me positive that I never want to be signed to a label and just work with my band and a distributor.

The day you can download a T-shirt will be a sad, sad day for all.

Many thanks for the read dude, very interesting.